Any experiences with a self-hosted assistant like the modern Google Assistant? Looking for something LLM-powered that is smarter than older assistants that would just try to call 3rd party tools directly and miss or misunderstand requests half of the time.
I’d like integration with a mobile app to use it from the phone and while driving. I see Home Assistant has an Android Auto integration. Has anyone used this, or another similar option? Any blatant limitations?
LOL they can’t even reliably turn the lights on, WTF are you talking about?
maybe last you tried it was over 6 months ago, maybe you’re using the old google assistant, or idk, but it definitely works for me
Everything I’ve read says Gemini is like 10x worse than Google Assistant.
so you haven’t tried it recently
Gemini is a hot pile of garbage.
When I ask Gemini for directions it starts to give me a definition, as opposed to opening maps and showing me the way. If I ask to turn off the lights I get a conversation and I end up walking to the light switch myself.
idk what to tell you, because I just tried it and it works
It’s gotten better. Which is to say, it’s almost feature compatible with the old assistant. But you can also give it context. So for example, if you say “remind me X”, you can get it to automatically remind you tomorrow with an alert at 9am, unless you specify a different time. And it’s ok if you screw up the phrasing a bit.
But DIY is infinitely better. If you have the resources.
Heh, I’ve actually moved away from using Google Home stuff because it’s shoving Gemini down my throat and it’s been worse in the last six months than it was a year ago.
Using Home Assistant with Qwen locally. It functions better than any version of Google Home I’ve had. Understands me without having to think about how I say things. Can ask it for one or multiple things at the same time. Can even make it so that it pretends to be Santa Claus while responding. My wife was ecstatic when she heard the Ho-ho-ho while asking to turn the coffee machine on on Christmas.