Chime TTS is a custom Home Assistant integration that combines TTS and audio files into one locally generated audio file, eliminating the gap caused by separate playback actions.
Chime TTS is a custom Home Assistant integration that locally combines TTS audio and sound effects into seamless audio for playback in a single action call. It can add chimes before, after, or between speech segments without playback lag.
Adding a notification chime before Text-To-Speech (TTS) audio messages requires separate action calls, which can introduce lag from cloud TTS generation, audio processing, and media-player playback.
Chime TTS combines the audio into a single file on your Home Assistant device, then plays that file as one seamless event.
Chime TTS offers features that enhance TTS audio playback:
- No lag or timing issues: Precise timing between audio files without separate playback actions.
- Customizable audio cues: Play preset, custom, downloaded, or remote audio before, after, or between TTS segments.
- Chime Sets: Create reusable groups of chimes and choose a member at random for each announcement.
- Flexible TTS platform selection: Works with any TTS platform configured in Home Assistant.
- Easy action invocation: Use
chime_tts.sayandchime_tts.say_urlactions in automations and scripts. - Player controls: Set media-player volume and restore currently playing audio where supported.
- Metadata and artwork: Forward media-player metadata and artwork to standard players with the
extraaction field. - Mix and match TTS platforms: Use multiple TTS platforms in one announcement.
- Audio controls: Configure speed, pitch, offsets, crossfades, delays, repeats, caching, FFmpeg conversion, and speaker groups where supported.
- Sidebar panel: Manage defaults, chimes, Chime Sets, notification profiles, and logs from Home Assistant.
Follow these steps to get started with Chime TTS:
- Installation - Install Chime TTS through HACS or manually.
- Add the Integration - Add Chime TTS to Home Assistant and make your first announcement.
- Additional Requirements - Configure a TTS platform and any player-specific requirements.
After installation, open Chime TTS from the Home Assistant sidebar to configure defaults and manage chimes. The panel is also available from the integration page’s Settings button.
Chime TTS adds four actions to Home Assistant:
chime_tts.saygenerates and plays audio and TTS messages on one or more media players.chime_tts.say_urlgenerates an audio file and returns a public URL or media-source identifier without playing it.chime_tts.replayrepeats the most recent Chime TTS playback request.chime_tts.clear_cacheremoves generated audio from the cache.
Chime TTS adds a notify platform: chime_tts. Create reusable notification profiles in the sidebar panel or define them in YAML for use in automations and scripts.
For configuration, examples, and complete documentation, visit the official Chime TTS site.
For questions, suggestions, and community discussion about Chime TTS, visit the Community Forum, or report an issue.