Home Assistant

Google Cloud Platform

The google_cloud platform allows you to use Google Cloud Platform API and integrate them into Home Assistant.

Configuration

To use Google Cloud Platform, you need to provide config directory relative path of API key file you are going to use. Place it under config folder and set key_file parameter in configuration.yaml:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
tts:
  - platform: google_cloud
    key_file: googlecloud.json

Obtaining an API key

API key obtaining process described in corresponding documentation:

Basic instruction for all APIs:

  1. Visit Cloud Resource Manager.

  2. Click CREATE PROJECT button at the top.

  3. Specify convenient Project name and click CREATE button.

  4. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud Platform project.

  5. Enable needed Cloud API visiting one of the links below or APIs library, selecting your Project from the dropdown list and clicking the Continue button:

  6. Set up authentication:

    1. Visit this link
    2. From the toolbar above the Service account list, select Create service account.
    3. In the Service account name field, enter any name.

    If you are requesting a text-to-speech API key:

    1. Don’t select a value from the Role list. No role is required to access this service.
    2. Click Create. If a note appears, warning that this service account has no role, you may ignore that.
    3. Return to the Service account list page and click on the service account you created in step 5 to see the details for this service account.
    4. Choose the Keys tab within the details view for this service account.
    5. In the Add Key dropdown, select Create New Key.
    6. Specify a JSON key type and click Create.
    7. A [serviceaccountname].json file will download to your browser.

Google Cloud text-to-speech

Google Cloud text-to-speech converts text into human-like speech in more than 100 voices across 20+ languages and variants. It applies groundbreaking research in speech synthesis (WaveNet) and Google’s powerful neural networks to deliver high-fidelity audio. With this easy-to-use API, you can create lifelike interactions with your users that transform customer service, device interaction, and other applications.

Pricing

The Cloud text-to-speech API is priced monthly based on the amount of characters to synthesize into audio sent to the service.

Voice Monthly free tier Paid usage
Neural2 0 to 1 million bytes $16.00 USD / 1 million bytes
Polyglot (Preview) 0 to 1 million bytes $16.00 USD / 1 million bytes
Studio (Preview) 0 to 100 thousand bytes $160.00 USD / 1 million bytes
Standard 0 to 4 million characters $4.00 USD / 1 million characters
WaveNet 0 to 1 million characters $16.00 USD / 1 million characters

Text-to-speech configuration

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?
key_file string (Optional)

The API key file to use with Google Cloud Platform. If not specified os.environ['GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS'] path will be used.

language string (Optional, default: en-US)

Default language of the voice, e.g., en-US. Supported languages, genders and voices listed here. Also there are extra not documented but supported languages (see dropdown here).

gender string (Optional, default: neutral)

Default gender of the voice, e.g., male. Supported languages, genders and voices listed here.

voice string (Optional)

Default voice name, e.g., en-US-Wavenet-F. Supported languages, genders and voices listed here. Important! This parameter will override language and gender parameters if set.

encoding string (Optional, default: mp3)

Default audio encoder. Supported encodings are ogg_opus, mp3 and linear16.

speed float (Optional, default: 1.0)

Default rate/speed of the voice, in the range [0.25, 4.0]. 1.0 is the normal native speed supported by the specific voice. 2.0 is twice as fast, and 0.5 is half as fast. If unset(0.0), defaults to the native 1.0 speed.

pitch float (Optional, default: 0.0)

Default pitch of the voice, in the range [-20.0, 20.0]. 20 means increase of 20 semitones from the original pitch. -20 means decrease of 20 semitones from the original pitch.

gain float (Optional, default: 0.0)

Default volume gain (in dB) of the voice, in the range [-96.0, 16.0]. If unset, or set to a value of 0.0 (dB), will play at normal native signal amplitude. A value of -6.0 (dB) will play at approximately half the amplitude of the normal native signal amplitude. A value of +6.0 (dB) will play at approximately twice the amplitude of the normal native signal amplitude. Strongly recommend not to exceed +10 (dB) as there’s usually no effective increase in loudness for any value greater than that.

profiles list (Optional, default: [])

An identifier which selects ‘audio effects’ profiles that are applied on (post synthesized) text-to-speech. Effects are applied on top of each other in the order they are given. Supported profile ids listed here.

text_type string (Optional, default: text)

Default text type. Supported text types are text and ssml. Read more on what is that and how to use SSML here.

Full configuration example

The Google Cloud text-to-speech configuration can look like:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
tts:
  - platform: google_cloud
    key_file: googlecloud.json
    language: en-US
    gender: male
    voice: en-US-Wavenet-F
    encoding: linear16
    speed: 0.9
    pitch: -2.5
    gain: -5.0
    text_type: ssml
    profiles:
      - telephony-class-application
      - wearable-class-device