Using Voice Assistants

Overview

The voice assistant feature lets you send voice commands from the Remote Two/3’s microphone to external voice assistants and compatible devices, without running a voice assistant directly on the Remote device itself.

This feature was introduced in beta firmware version 2.8.1.

Important: The Remote Two/3 does not include its own local voice assistant. All voice processing is handled externally by the selected voice assistant.

How It Works

The Remote Two/3 forwards the microphone audio stream directly to your chosen external voice assistant service for processing. The assistant then processes the command. Depending on the type of assistant, a response may be shown on the controlled device, displayed on the Remote Two/3, or even played back as audio.

Currently Supported Assistants

• Home Assistant Voice
• Android TV voice commands (added in firmware 2.8.2)

The system supports multiple voice assistants. You can configure a global voice assistant for system-wide access via the voice button. Additionally, you can select a different voice assistant (or a different profile for the same assistant) within specific Activities. This allows for flexible setups, such as:

• Sending voice input to different Android TV devices.
• Using a different language profile for Home Assistant Assist.

A voice assistant profile is optional and is intended for different options or features. This is used for smart home systems supporting multiple languages, or for 3rd party integrations supporting multiple local or cloud based solutions.

Setup & Usage

1. Enable the microphone before using any voice feature:
   1. Navigate to Settings, Voice control in the web-configurator.
   2. Enable the microphone for the voice assistant feature.
      Note: the microphone can also be enabled on the device, but configuring a voice assistant is only supported in the web-configurator.
      
2. Select a voice assistant
   1. Make sure you have included a voice assistant entity from a supported integration, for example from Home Assistant.

   2. Choose an available voice assistant in Settings, Voice control. Click on the selection box showing “None”, to bring up a list of voice assistants:
       

      

      

   3. Optionally, select a profile if supported by the voice assistant: As an example, the following picture shows the profiles of a Home Assistant voice assistant with multiple voice pipelines.
   • A star icon is shown for the preferred pipeline.
   • Language labels and additional features of the pipelines are shown with icons. See feature details below.
     
3. Activating Voice Input
   • Only the dedicated microphone button on the Remote can activate voice recording and bring up the voice assistant interface on the screen.
   • To start speaking, press and hold down the microphone button. The microphone is only active while you continue to hold the button.
   • Release the button to stop sending audio and notify the assistant of the audio input end.
   • The maximum length for a single voice command is 10 seconds.

Optional Features Provided by Voice Assistants

There are two general categories of external voice assistants:

1. Device-Based Assistants (One-Way)

Some devices accept voice commands but do not return results to the Remote device.

Android TV is an example: the voice command is sent to the TV, and any feedback—visual or spoken—is provided only on the TV itself.

2. Smart Home Systems (Two-Way)

Some systems return results back to the Remote device, including text or speech feedback.

Home Assistant Voice supports this through Assist Pipelines.

Depending on the selected assistant and its capabilities, the Remote device may display or play back returned information:

	Transcription The spoken command is converted to text and displayed on the UI.
	Text Response The result of the command (e.g., “Lights turned on”) is displayed.
	Speech Response The assistant returns an audio reply, usually the spoken text response, which can be played on the Remote device.

Availability of these features depends entirely on the selected external assistant. These features are shown in the voice assistant profile.

Important Configuration Note

• If you configure a Global Voice Assistant, any custom microphone button mappings you have set up within individual Activities will be deactivated and will no longer work. The global assistant will take priority for all voice button presses.