163
Google Assistant will vanish from Android phones and connected devices in September
(www.engadget.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
163 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
86982 readers
3275 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I degoogled (mostly) a while ago, but home assistant has a pretty configurable local voice assistant. If you have remote access to your server, I imagine you could cobble together a good keyword based personal assistant that sets alarms, turns lights on and off, and reads you an RSS newsfeed while you drink your morning coffee.
We're truly on the technological downslope now. First it was all about the user and making software accomplish a purpose, then it was all about the user as long as it was profitable, now it's fuck the user - be profitable.
Personally I went out of my way to put physical buttons around my house so I can use Home Assistant automations without talking. It has the added bonus that guests can just turn the lights on and off without a tutorial.
I had everything either automated or timed but the ladies wanted a physical button in the bathroom. Ok I put one in, then they kept leaving the light on so I had to put in a 15 min timer. Buttons have their places. I also prefer not talking to it.
I get a lot done with physical buttons and time / condition automations but sometimes it's nice to just do a one off action from the couch.
I've built some md5stack little speaker things and they work okay. Weird audio artifacts sometimes though.
It can definitely come in handy. Although I went as far as leaving a wireless Zigbee button by my couch so I can dim the lights or toggle power on my AV stuff without getting up. I haven't replaced the battery yet, and it's been 2 years.
Bilresa buttons from IKEA are a blessing. Cheap, (currently) work with ZigBee and ridiculously simple to set up. I can talk to Home Assistant, but never do.
I'm working on a project using esp32s to build my own Hal9000 system. Every room will have a small touch screen where you can control stuff in the room, but the screen saver will be HAL
I'm sorry, Village, I'm afraid you can't do that.
Wake words are a pain on android but everything else is very doable. I use my local assistant everyday.