What's new in Kiosk Satellite 2026.10.6
This release adds Google Gemini as a realtime conversation provider. It also fixes a screen that could stay black after a screensaver and lets Switch kiosk open HTTPS kiosks that use an imported certificate.
New Feature: Google Gemini for realtime conversations
- A third realtime provider. Voice Satellite > Realtime gains Google Gemini next to OpenAI and xAI Grok, over Google's Live API (#832). A key from Google AI Studio works on the free tier, so you can try realtime conversations before paying per minute.
- Models and voices. Model lists the Live models your key can use and defaults to
gemini-3.8-live. Voice offers Gemini's 30 voices. Home Assistant tools, instructions, session duration and talking over an answer work the same as with the other providers. - Reasoning effort. The Configure dialog has Reasoning effort for the Gemini models that think.
- Google Search. A switch lets the model look things up on the web. It needs billing turned on for the key.
- Ignore talk not meant for it. Gemini's experimental proactive audio keeps the model quiet when what it hears isn't addressed to it.
- Fleet credential. The Gemini API key is a Fleet Management credential, off by default like the other realtime keys. Gemini has no speech speed setting.
Fixes
- The screen no longer goes black for good after a screensaver. On some tablets the screen could go black after a screensaver and stay that way until the app restarted, while the dashboard, wake word, camera and ESPHome kept working underneath (#830). The app now releases its drawing context every time it lets go of the screen surface. As a safety net, the frame watchdog restarts the app if the screen stays stuck for 10 seconds and reports the restart through Diagnostics.
- Switch kiosk opens HTTPS kiosks with an imported certificate by name. The kiosk switcher linked every kiosk by its IP address, so a kiosk serving HTTPS with an imported certificate, such as one from Let's Encrypt, failed the browser's certificate check (#833). A kiosk with an imported certificate now announces the first DNS name the certificate covers and the switcher opens it by that name. The By name row on the Access card also shows that name instead of the
.localaddress. Kiosks on the generated certificate or plain HTTP still open by IP address.