HeyAnything
An Android voice trigger that lets you set any custom wake phrase to control your smart home while keeping Gemini or Google Assistant as your default.
Smart-home owners who want hands-free voice control without giving up their default assistant
- Custom wake-word setup wizard with on-device training once Android 18 unlocks DSP access
- Smart home action routing across Home Assistant, Hubitat, SmartThings, and HomeKit bridges
- Concurrent-listening indicator showing which assistant triggered which action
- Privacy dashboard listing which processes are listening and what each one can do
The EU's DMA decision forces Google to expose DSP-backed wake words to third parties, finally unlocking consumer-grade custom wake phrases outside Gemini.
HN post (140 pts) plus Home Assistant community threads show real but niche interest from smart-home power users; general consumers mostly fine with 'Hey Google'.WTH: Wake Words for Android App - Home Assistant Community ↗Commission provides guidance to Google for AI interoperability on Android under the DMA ↗
Open-source projects (ayega, easy-android-ha-wakeword-app) already implement custom wake words triggering Assistant/Alexa/Home Assistant; Picovoice Porcupine is mature infra — no clear wide-open consumer gap.GitHub - fubarpie/ayega: Android wake word customization utility app ↗GitHub - R00S/easy-android-ha-wakeword-app ↗Best Custom Wake Word Tools: A Practical Comparison ↗
Picovoice is enterprise-priced per-seat; free OSS alternatives (ayega) exist; smart-home users are notoriously price-sensitive and Home Assistant ecosystem skews toward free/open-source.Porcupine Wake Word: On-Device Keyword Spotting for Enterprises ↗GitHub - Picovoice/porcupine ↗
DMA ruling (July 2026) is real and binding, requiring Google to let third-party assistants be voice-activated like 'Hey Google', but scope is EU-only and Google may implement minimally or appeal — solid but not global tailwind.EU Gives Rival AI Assistants System-Level Android Access Google Reserved for Gemini ↗Commission provides guidance to Google for AI interoperability on Android under the DMA ↗
Picovoice Porcupine SDK provides on-device DSP-backed wake word detection with Android demo apps; existing OSS apps prove the architecture, though always-listening mic permissions and battery drain remain real engineering constraints.Porcupine Wake Word | Android Quick Start - Picovoice Docs ↗Easy way to add custom wake word for android app in 2024 ↗