Hass Voice Replay: Fix Group Audio Only Playing On Main Speaker

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Hass Voice Replay: Fix Group Audio Only Playing on Main Speaker

Hey everyone! Having issues with your Hass Voice Replay playing only on the main speaker when you're trying to broadcast to a group? You're not alone! This article will dive into a common problem encountered with the hass-voice-replay integration where audio, whether recorded or synthesized via TTS, only plays on the primary speaker of a group instead of all intended speakers. Let's break down the issue, explore the steps to reproduce it, and hopefully shed some light on potential solutions or workarounds.

Understanding the Issue

The core problem lies in how hass-voice-replay handles group audio playback. Instead of distributing the audio stream to all speakers within a defined group (e.g., "Kitchen +1"), it mistakenly directs the audio solely to the main or designated speaker of that group (e.g., "Kitchen"). This can be frustrating, especially when you're trying to create a seamless, multi-room audio experience. Imagine trying to make an announcement and only one room hears it! That's not ideal, right? The goal is to have voice replays and TTS announcements distributed evenly across all speakers within a group, ensuring everyone gets the message loud and clear. This issue has been observed in specific versions of hass-voice-replay, hass-voice-replay-card, and Home Assistant, suggesting a potential compatibility issue or a bug within the integration itself. So, let's figure out how to get everything working the way it should!

How to Reproduce the Problem

Okay, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. If you want to see if you're experiencing this issue, follow these steps to reproduce it. This will help you confirm whether the problem exists in your setup and provide valuable information when seeking help or reporting a bug:

  1. Select a Group: First off, head over to your Home Assistant interface and select a predefined group of speakers. This could be something like "Living Room + Dining Room," "Upstairs," or any other group you've configured.
  2. Record Voice (or use TTS): Now, create an audio message to be played back. You can either record your voice using the hass-voice-replay functionality or utilize text-to-speech (TTS) to generate a message. For example, you could say something like, "Dinner is ready!" or use TTS to announce, "The back door is unlocked."
  3. Send to Group: Next, send the recorded voice or TTS message to the group you selected in step one. Make sure you're using the hass-voice-replay card or service to initiate the playback.
  4. Observe the Playback: Now comes the crucial part. Listen carefully to where the audio is playing. You should notice that the voice replay only comes through the main speaker defined within that group. For instance, if your group is "Kitchen +1", only the audio in "Kitchen" plays.

If you observe this behavior, congratulations (or maybe not!), you've successfully reproduced the issue. This confirmation is super helpful when troubleshooting or reporting the bug to the developers. Make sure to document the steps you took and the results you observed, as this will aid in diagnosing and resolving the problem. Having a clear and reproducible test case is key to getting the issue fixed promptly. This detailed approach helps ensure that developers can accurately identify and address the root cause, leading to a more robust and reliable hass-voice-replay experience for everyone.

Expected vs. Observed Behavior

Let's clarify what should happen versus what actually happens when this issue rears its ugly head.

Expected Behavior:

When you send a voice recording or TTS message to a speaker group using hass-voice-replay, the ideal outcome is that the audio plays simultaneously on all speakers within that group. This creates a unified and immersive audio experience, ensuring that everyone in the designated area can clearly hear the message. For example, if you have a group named "Living Room + Kitchen", the audio should play in both the living room speakers and the kitchen speakers at the same time. This synchronized playback is crucial for effective announcements, music distribution, and other audio-related tasks. The goal is to create a seamless and cohesive audio environment where the message is consistently delivered across all intended speakers.

Observed Behavior:

Unfortunately, the reality is often different. Instead of the audio playing on all speakers in the group, it only plays on the main speaker of that group. This means that if you have a group "Bedroom + Bathroom", the audio might only play on the speaker designated as the "main" speaker in the Bedroom, leaving those in the bathroom in silence. This behavior defeats the purpose of having a speaker group, as it fails to provide the distributed audio experience that users expect. The limitation to a single speaker significantly reduces the effectiveness of announcements and creates an uneven audio environment. It's frustrating when you expect a synchronized sound and only get it in one location! This unexpected behavior disrupts the intended functionality and diminishes the overall user experience.

Version Information

To effectively diagnose and address the issue, it's crucial to gather detailed version information about your setup. Here's what you need to provide:

  • hass-voice-replay: This is the version number of the core hass-voice-replay integration. In the original report, it's version 0.9.3. Knowing this helps determine if the issue is specific to a particular version or a range of versions.
  • hass-voice-replay-card: This refers to the version of the Lovelace card used to interact with the hass-voice-replay integration. The reported version is 0.9.5. The card version can sometimes influence how commands are sent to the integration, making it a relevant piece of information.
  • HACS: HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is a popular way to install and manage custom integrations and cards. The version number (2.0.5 in this case) can be helpful if there are known compatibility issues with specific HACS versions.
  • Home Assistant OS: This includes the core version, supervisor version, operating system version, and frontend version of your Home Assistant installation. The reported versions are:
    • Core: 2025.11.1
    • Supervisor: 2025.11.1
    • Operating System: 16.3
    • Frontend: 20251105.0

This comprehensive version information provides a clear snapshot of the environment in which the issue is occurring. It allows developers and other users to compare configurations, identify potential conflicts, and pinpoint the source of the problem more accurately. When reporting the issue, always include these details to ensure a more efficient troubleshooting process.

Potential Workarounds and Solutions

Alright, so you've confirmed the issue and gathered all the necessary information. What can you do about it? While a definitive fix might require an update to the hass-voice-replay integration itself, here are a few potential workarounds and solutions you can try in the meantime:

  1. Check Speaker Group Configuration:

    • Dive into your Home Assistant configuration and double-check the speaker group settings. Ensure that all speakers intended to be part of the group are correctly included and properly configured. Sometimes, a simple misconfiguration can lead to unexpected behavior. Make sure each speaker is correctly identified and associated with the group. Also, verify that there are no conflicting settings or automations that might be interfering with the audio routing. It's always a good idea to review the basics to rule out any obvious errors before moving on to more complex solutions.

  2. Experiment with Different Media Players:

    • hass-voice-replay likely uses a specific media player integration under the hood. Try experimenting with different media player integrations within Home Assistant to see if that resolves the issue. For example, if you're using the default Home Assistant media player, try switching to the Sonos integration or the Chromecast integration (if applicable). Each media player handles audio routing and group playback differently, so switching to a different one might bypass the bug. Be sure to configure the new media player correctly and test it thoroughly to ensure it's working as expected.

  3. Automations for Targeted Playback:

    • Create custom automations that specifically target each speaker in the group individually. Instead of sending the audio to the group as a whole, create an automation that sends the audio to each speaker sequentially or simultaneously. This approach gives you more control over the audio routing and can work around the limitations of the hass-voice-replay integration. While this method requires more setup and configuration, it can be an effective workaround until a proper fix is available. You can use Node-RED or YAML to create such automation.

  4. Update or Downgrade hass-voice-replay:

    • Check if there's a newer version of hass-voice-replay available. The update might include a fix for this issue. If a newer version doesn't solve the problem, consider downgrading to a previous version where the group playback was working correctly. To do this, you'll need to uninstall the current version and install the older one manually or through HACS. Before downgrading, make sure to back up your configuration to prevent any data loss.

By trying these workarounds, you might be able to mitigate the issue and achieve the desired audio playback behavior in your speaker groups. Remember to test each solution thoroughly and document your findings, as this information can be valuable when reporting the issue to the developers or seeking further assistance.