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A comment on My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant. Parent comment

Re:My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voi... by hamdingers on Monday March 16, 2026 @11:24AM (#47400246)
If I have to go to a thing and push a button, I'd rather the button do the thing I wanted in the first place. Voice assistants are for when my hands are full or I don't want to get up. (I wrote more about my home automation philosophy in another comment[1]).

Also I have all my voice assistant devices mounted to the ceiling

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47399909

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Re:My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voi... by huhtenberg on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @05:05AM (#47410185)
What if you have two things? You'd then need two buttons.

The push button is a perfectly viable option, it just needs to be in a form factor that's works. Could be as simple as a tiny low-energy Bluetooth board with a coin battery that will last several months.

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Re:My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voi... by ash_091 on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @08:29AM (#47411740)
Luckily I carry around a device with infinite reconfigurable buttons!
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Re:My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voi... by kbelder on Wednesday March 18, 2026 @07:28PM (#47432683)
Yeah, a touch-sensitive com-badge mounted on your chest would work.

Actually, I would think a small coin-sized button & transmitter that did nothing but emit a signal that your assistant (or phone) interprets as 'start listening' would be pretty useful. In your pocket, on a watch band, etc.

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