Home Assistant Voice just got a major upgrade and it might finally be ready to replace Alexa. In this video, I demo and break down three incredible new features that change the game for natural voice control, automations, and LLM-powered interactions using the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition hardware.
1 – No more repeating the wake word.
2 – Automations can now start the conversation.
3 – Real-time web search and location-aware responses.
Let me know how you’re using these features in your own setup!
🔗 Resources & Links
Home Assistant 2025.4 Release Notes:
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/04/02/release-20254/Live Demo by Home Assistant Product Manager, JLo:
https://www.youtube.com/live/-w9IBKg5RAw?si=DEfs-_ZEnsjG-SZb&t=5400AI-Powered Plex TV Show Shuffling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfb-PNY5uQ8Lorelai's Core System Prompt Template:
https://gist.github.com/mediacutlet/c54a3e671af4d9acd7bf3c8db0d99e61#HomeAssistant #SmartHome #VoiceAssistant #LLM #HomeAutomation #SmartHomeTech #HomeAssistantVoice #ai
Timestamps
00:00 Opening
00:13 Continued Conversations (Follow-up Mode)
01:58 Starting Conversations from Automations
05:11 Home Assistant LLM Real-time Web Searching
08:21 Enabling These Features in Home Assistant
09:26 How to: Enable LLM Web Searching (Screenshare)
10:06 How to: Start LLM Conversations from Automations (Screenshare)
12:07 Closing Thoughts