What's new in Kiosk Satellite 2026.10.3
This release adds Dutch, lets realtime conversations remember the session and brings back Capture mode for devices whose microphone only works on the call audio path. It also fixes the Bluetooth proxy going silent with the screen off and the microphone recording silence on some ROMs.
Improvements
- Dutch localization. Nederlands is available during onboarding and in Settings on the device and in the remote admin. All current messages are translated. Thanks to rononline, who is listed in Localization Credits.
- Realtime conversations remember the session. A new Session duration slider on the Realtime page, from 30 minutes to 12 hours and 1 hour by default, carries what was said into the next conversation. A follow up like "turn it off" after turning on the AC now works after a conversation ended. Exchanges older than the duration are dropped and nothing is kept across an app restart.
- Capture mode is back. Some OEM ROMs only deliver a working microphone on Android's call audio path, so the microphone went silent after the kiosk played a chime or an answer (#809). Capture mode in Microphone settings offers Raw microphone, the default, and Voice communication. Voice communication only changes where the kiosk records from. Android's own echo canceller, noise suppressor and gain control stay off, and sounds still play as media.
- Keep scanning with the screen off. Some devices, such as a Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 on Android 16, stop the Bluetooth proxy's scan the moment the screen turns off. A new switch under ESPHome > Bluetooth Proxy keeps those devices scanning. It is off by default because it uses extra CPU while the screen is off, and it only shows on Android 13 and newer.
- Show finished timer pills. A new switch under Voice Satellite > Timers > When a timer ends hides the "Timer finished" pill, for setups that show timers on their own dashboard (#810). The alert still rings and the stop word still ends it.
- Open the alarm list from a dashboard. A tap action pointed at
ks://alarmsopens the full screen alarm list, even while the kiosk menu hides Alarms.
Fixes
- The Bluetooth proxy keeps relaying with the screen off. Android stops giving a backgrounded app location access once the screen is off, and the proxy needs that access every time it restarts its scan. A kiosk with the screen off stopped relaying within two minutes and stayed silent until the screen came back on (#812). The Kiosk Satellite Service now keeps location access while the Bluetooth proxy is on.
- The microphone works again on devices that record silence. On some firmware, such as the Meta Portal Mini's, the raw microphone source delivers nothing but zeros, so the wake word stopped responding (#808). Capture now falls back to Android's voice recognition source and then the call source when the microphone source reads silence.
- Capture no longer abandons a working format because a sound slowed it down. Some devices slow the microphone down while they play a sound. A rate check that ran during a chime could switch to a format that really was broken (#809). A short rate measured during playback is now checked again afterward.
- Realtime conversations know which room they are in. "Turn on the lights" could reach every light in the house, because a realtime model's calls through Home Assistant's MCP server carry no device. Each conversation now starts with the kiosk's name and area, and a command that names no area applies to that one.
- The skin's bar goes away when the turn ends. With Keep the answer on screen or Keep results on screen, the skin's bar kept animating as if the kiosk were still listening (#810). It now hides once the kiosk stops listening and speaking, and the answer stays on screen.