Insignia - Voice Smart Bluetooth Speaker $24.99

$24.99 instead of $99.99

They claim to be compatible with Smartthing, but I never tried.
I hope I can use those for Voice announcement via DLNA.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-voice-smart-bluetooth-speaker-and-alarm-clock-with-the-google-assistant-built-in-black/5865801.p?skuId=5865801

https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-CSPGASP-B/5865801

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I have one of these I got free during a holiday sales goof at Best Buy. I find it is just about as good as a regular home. I don’t think the sound is quite as good, it doesn’t hear voices quite as well, and firmware doesn’t seem to update (can’t make phone calls). I would say both listen/sound are about 90% as good. For 25 bucks its a great product though. The portable battery powered one is 50 and I am thinking of picking that up.

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Thanks! Considering it has great reviews, I figure it’s worth a try.

Fyi I got the portable one and shockingly it’s at least 3 times the size of the normal over. Set it up after the kids went to bed so didn’t get a chance to test out the sound, but it’s shocking how big it is. Especially because it’s portable lol.

I grabbed one of the battery powered ones a couple months ago. I got as far as plugging it in overnight to charge. Never have gotten around to actually turning it on or setting it up.

I got mine tonight.
Set it up with SmartThings, so far it’s working just like the Echo Dot I have around the house.

Haven’t tried to play music yet, but sound quality seems already better than the Dots.

My goal was to do some TTS to replace my Sonos buggy TTS but haven’t got around that yet.
Not detected as a regular Media Renderer in ST, so I will need to check with other apps… if this is even possible…

TTS would be nice. Let me know if you figure that out.

Currently, for TTS I use a cheap android tablet mounted to a wall, along with LANnouncer and an app that maintains the Wifi connection. I have it compliment my wife whenever she gets home. I use random variations, such as, “You’re looking lovely today.”

I do have TTS with Sonos as well and I love it 90% of the time, the other 10% of the time, after a TTS, it will play previous stations I was listening to, and very loud!

On the other hand, my Fabriq speaker works very well for that TTS application and was hoping to get the Insignia to do the same without having to have an Android tablet paired over bluetooth…
Will have to spend some time on this, but this is quite low on my To Do list lol

Like I said, I got as far as charging the battery a couple months ago. I haven’t even set it up with Google account yet. That’s how low it is on my list.
With all my Fabriq and Samsung speakers I really don’t need it for TTS. I pretty much bought it for the clock LOL

I picked one of these for for $25 can’t complain, has much better sound then the dot’s I have. Only problem is if my Pixel 2 XL is next to me then both the phone and the speaker will pickup. I suspect this is a problem with this particular device and not the Google assistant.

It’s not the speakers, it’s the always listening GA on your phone. Happens to me all the time too.

I got two of these. Can’t beat the price. I got them to replace two speakers I have set up in my kids bedroom and the play room. Currently I have a small portable speaker hooked up to chromecast audio. It works great for streaming audio content to each room of the house. I didn’t need to replace the current set up but liked the idea of adding voice control in those rooms. I set the new speaker up last night. Streaming wasn’t as smooth on the new speaker as it was using the chromecast audio. The room is on the edge of my wireless network so I guess the wireless reception on these speakers is not as good at the chromecast audio. Other than that the sound is decent and voice control is an added bonus. It also is a relatively small footprint.

Yeah but with my Amazon Dot’s which ever one is closer will pickup or will the Google Home devices also do the same?

Google Home devices do, Google Assistant on your phone may or may not depending on it’s mood. LOL.

Using “Hey Google” in favor of "Okay Google"seems to limit phone responding.

That used to work for me (Hey Google triggering Home only) but a couple months ago my phone started responding to Hey Google also so as of now there is no way for me to trigger Home only. It also kind of stinks there is no way to trigger phone only as if you say Hey Google do something phoney the Home picks up and says it can’t do it.

I wish I knew how to discriminate between Home devices. I usually have a phone or tablet, or both, near me when I call out to my Google Home. Typically, but not always, the GH takes the command, but the phone/tablet hears the wake command and begins to respond - somehow it then realized that GH is on the case and it stands down.

Phones and tablets wake to “Okay Google” only. Google Home devices also wake to " Hey Google". So using Hey instead of Okay should eliminate the phone. I have noticed that even using Hey that the interaction will display on my phone though.

They changed the Hey Google phrase awhile back so that it will also activate the phone assistant too. That was also my workaround until they made the change.

Lots of chat about the speaker. What I want to know is if ST picks up the set alarm time - to be used as a trigger elsewhere.

I have looked far and wide for an alarm clock - with buttons and all (major WAF), but then has zigbee or zwave to communicate with ST. We just do not have static wake up times.

The alarm clock is completely separate AFAIK.