The FOSS-only crowd might flame me for this, but I’d argue this type of scenario is a legit use-case for voice assistants, because “remind me to buy ________” is a fairly easy habit to get into and it’s a single step, fast enough to beat the attention bounce.

Edit: I meant no offense. Reworded to “FOSS-only.”

[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (3 children)

It absolutely would be a good thing for a voice assistant.

But most kickback against voice assistants isn't the lack of use case, it's all the other bullshit you have to accept alongside it.

If I could install a voice assistant that didn't require a constant internet connection and could work alongside other services, I'd use it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I think there's one on F-droid? Starts with a D. I'm sorry I just woke up and can't find it.

Edit: its Dicio, oof tho it doesn't look offline but it does tick the rest of the boxes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

HomeAssistant has seen a bit of a revolution around the concept of voice assistants.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Heard some buzz and have been meaning to read up. The speech service has been the primary puzzle piece binding me to proprietary systems, but if it’s time it’s time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can build your own on a Raspberry Pi or similar PC

https://github.com/OpenVoiceOS

Can indeed work offline, but only the basic stuff

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I've tried voice assistants, won't be viable until there's at least half a million autistic linux users who iron out all the kinks for a self hosted service.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I bet some FOSS voice recognition projects have matured since last I checked, but the closest I had sketched out in the past required external calls to the local speech kit api on macOS or iOS. We’ll get there. It’s too useful to let big tech have a monopoly on it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

We did that for years, until the products we bought switched APIs making us have to change shopping list apps a couple times, then shut off the feature altogether.

Any tech that requires an outside server eventually gets shut off and you spend my more time managing it than you saved in the long run.

Just toss the shampoo bottle on the floor to remind yourself.

[–] captain_aggravated 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes, that is a legitimate use case for that technology.

I do not consider myself anti-tech by any stretch of the imagination (I can put my hands on no less than five computers from where I'm sitting) and I want things like voice assistants and smart houses and whatnot for the benefits they can provide, but we've got to pry the invasive corporate bullshit out first.