HomeDeck
HomeDeck turns an Android phone or tablet, including an old one you no longer use, into a control panel for your home. It finds the devices on your network, shows your security cameras, connects to Home Assistant, MQTT and Philips Hue, and answers voice commands without sending your voice to the cloud.
Early access
HomeDeck is in early access. The current release is 1.0.1, for Android. Some parts are new and lightly tested, so expect rough edges, and please report what you find on GitHub.
Who it is for
- People with an old phone or tablet in a drawer who want a wall-mounted control panel instead of buying one.
- Home Assistant users who want a simple, fast dashboard on a cheap device.
- Anyone with network devices and cameras from different brands who wants them in one place.
What it does
| Tab | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Home | Your devices, grouped by room, with an on/off switch on each one that supports it. |
| Devices | Scan your network, then name devices, put them in rooms, and wake, ping or open them. |
| Cameras | Find ONVIF security cameras or add any RTSP or HTTP stream, and watch them. |
| Settings | Panel options, rooms, the voice assistant and connections to other systems. |
What it connects to
| Source | How |
|---|---|
| Any network device: PC, NAS, printer, router, TV | Found by scanning your local network. PCs can be woken with Wake-on-LAN. |
| Security cameras of any brand | ONVIF discovery, or a stream address you type in. Analog cameras through a DVR's RTSP channel. |
| Home Assistant | Its address and a long-lived access token. Brings in lights, switches, climate, sensors, scenes and cameras. |
| MQTT devices: Tasmota, ESPHome, Zigbee2MQTT, Shelly | Your MQTT broker, using Home Assistant's discovery topics. |
| Philips Hue | The Hue Bridge on your network, paired with its link button. No cloud account. |
SmartThings and Tuya devices can be reached through Home Assistant. Alexa devices cannot be controlled by third-party apps; reach the same bulbs and plugs through Hue, MQTT or Home Assistant instead.
The voice assistant
HomeDeck's assistant listens for a wake word you choose, such as "hey jarvis", then carries out commands like "turn off all the lights downstairs" or "set the thermostat to 21". It understands commands with fixed on-device rules: no cloud service, no account, no API key. It controls devices; it does not chat, answer questions or set timers. See Voice assistant and wake word.
Built for old hardware
Camera tiles show still snapshots instead of decoding video, and a stream only plays when you open a camera full screen. Performance mode checks the device's memory, processor and Android version and turns down effects on weak hardware. Dim overnight keeps a wall panel from lighting the room.
Platforms
HomeDeck 1.0.1 runs on Android 7.0 or later, with separate APKs for 64-bit ARM, 32-bit ARM and x86-64 devices. The source code and issue tracker are on GitHub.