Question

Ok Home Assistant questions.  I have a google home, home.Ok Home Assistant questions. I have a google home, home. We have alot of products and they all work with google. So why do I need Home assistant? What are the benefits? Trying to deside if I should go threw all the hassle of getting Home assistant vs just leaving things as they are. Please help - also I am very smart home not smart lol Everything we have works with Google Lenovo Merkury innovations Monster Altec EWeLink Nest C by Ge Google We do not have any routines as our house is super chaotic.  

Answer 1

If it all works. why change? Home assistant is good for integrating different brands. For example my zigbee osram motion sensor checks my tasmota sonoff with a light sensor attached to see if its dark. It then checks what the time is and turns on a shelly dimmer to a set brightness and for a varying length of time!  

Comments

@kylstra everyone is saying I need a hub and most commonly mentioned was home assistant app / hub so I figured I'd find out why I need it

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@stultz perhaps smart-things would be better? If you want to start adding automations etc to your home then generally thats where a hub comes in.  

Answer 2

A hub is most useful for tying different protocols or ecosystems together or for doing more advanced automations than basic automations (this includes most platforms that started out as voice assistants and still primarily are that) provide. This depends greatly on the hub; e. g., Wink won't get you much more complicated automations, but SmartThings will; however, it's cloud-dependent for most things (but so is GH). Home Assistant runs everything it can locally, but it's a bit harder to set up. So your exact outcome will depend on which hub you choose. If GH can do everything you want right now, there's no reason to use one; if you ever think you'll outgrow its limits, you have more options.  

Answer 3

While Google home is great, it along with others like it, mine your digital data, with HA you can keep it all to yourself, although many people do use Google and Alexa still so there's that. But HA will still work when the internet goes down and there are alternatives to google and Alexa. Plus you are not locked into certain vendors that Google supports and if they decide although its doubtful, but they can drop support for things and then you'll be left with tech that doesn't work. I personally love the actual automation that you can accomplish with HA, and even though you say that you have no routines, you do.  

Answer 4

Home Assistant is a home automation controller. It allows for "automations", specifically for your devices to take action automatically at the right time under the right circumstances. Google Home is not a home automation controller, at least not a very good one. It's automation capabilities are limited. It's more so just a voice controller.