Ava is still a voice assistant, and that remains clear. But in 0.3.7, the overall direction opens up much more. Not every device is well suited to running a full voice pipeline all the time, and not every user wants one device to stay locked into a single role forever. Some people want a voice terminal. Others would rather have a quiet browser panel, a screensaver device, or a stable music terminal. Ava now embraces that difference much more naturally.
For browser-based voice interfaces, voice-satellite-card-integration is genuinely impressive. Its presentation feels modern, clean, and direct. That deserves recognition. This update opens that path much further and gives users more freedom in how they want to use their devices.
New Voice Channel Master Switch
This release adds a new Voice Channel master switch. You can now directly control Ava’s entire native voice pipeline from the voice settings page. When enabled, Ava keeps its full original voice capabilities. When disabled, voice input, wake word handling, voice assistant threads, and related entities are all turned off together, so both the interface and the background behavior become much cleaner.
This is especially useful because browser-based WebRTC voice and Ava’s native voice pipeline can compete for resources on some devices, especially around microphone access. If you want to prioritize browser-based voice, you can now manually turn off Ava’s voice channel and let the device stay lighter, quieter, and more power-efficient.
I personally tested the other project as well, and I hope it will eventually add something similar to Ava’s manual wake entry point. Home Assistant’s own native voice assistant already handles this very well, while the browser-based route still has room to grow. Ava’s own voice channel and AI visual experience will continue to improve, including more polished visual feedback and better animated presentation.
Improved Built-In Browser Microphone Support
To better support browser voice scenarios, 0.3.7 significantly improves microphone handling inside the built-in browser and pushes the WebRTC path much further. Ava’s internal browser is no longer just a place to display webpages. It is now much better suited to hosting browser-based voice interfaces directly.
This matters a lot for many devices. Some hardware is simply better as a long-running interface terminal: stable display, low idle power use, dependable always-on presence. For those devices, using a browser-based voice interface can feel more natural than forcing a full native voice stack. Ava now supports that approach much better.
Sendspin Keeps Getting Better
This release also highlights Sendspin. As Ava’s music terminal protocol, it has become smoother, stronger, and much more practical to use. Many devices do not need to listen for wake words all the time, but they can still become excellent music endpoints. With the music pipeline now opened up even further, switching a device into that role feels far more natural.
That flexibility is exciting. A device can be used for voice, or it can quietly serve as a music endpoint, a screensaver panel, a browser dashboard, or a stable visual terminal. Open, flexible, power-efficient, and still very capable. That is exactly the direction Ava should grow toward.
The Mod Store Keeps Expanding
Alongside voice, browser, and music improvements, the Mod Store is becoming more important too. Ava is no longer just a fixed-function app. It is gradually becoming a more open platform that can continue to expand. Through the Mod Store, more device adaptations, UI ideas, control logic, and new feature paths can keep arriving over time.
This gives Ava a much longer life and gives users more freedom to shape it around their own hardware and workflows. The open direction is not just a slogan. The Mod Store is one of the clearest signs of that direction, and it will continue growing with broader mod support.
Fixed Overly Sensitive Pull-to-Refresh
This release also fixes the browser pull-to-refresh behavior being too sensitive. Previously, dragging down inside normal page content could trigger a refresh too easily, which made browsing feel awkward. Refresh now triggers much more strictly from the top region only, so scrolling and refreshing feel clearer and much more natural.
How To Make HTTP Work with HTTPS
If you are using a local Home Assistant address such as http://192.168.0.xxx:8123/ and want browser voice, WebRTC, microphone access, and other secure-context features to work more reliably, moving to HTTPS is strongly recommended.
You can do it like this:
- Prepare a certificate and private key for Home Assistant.
- Add an
httpsection inconfiguration.yamland point it to the certificate and key files. - Restart Home Assistant and switch to
https://your-address:8123/. - If the device or browser says the certificate is not trusted, install the certificate and trust it manually.
- If you are using a direct LAN IP, make sure the certificate includes that IP. A local domain is even better if available.
Example:
http:
ssl_certificate: /your/config/path/ssl/ha_local.crt
ssl_key: /your/config/path/ssl/ha_local.keySimply ignoring SSL errors does not create a true secure context. For browser voice, WebRTC, and microphone capture, HTTPS remains the more reliable path.
Final Words
Let Ava truly become more free. Let each device do what it is best at by knoop7