If you want to control Home Assistant with Google Home without relying on the cloud, you’re going to love this setup. Thanks to Matter and a clever add-on, you can connect Home Assistant to Google Home, Alexa, or Apple Home locally, with no subscription required.
In this guide, I’ll show you step-by-step how to connect Home Assistant to Google Home via Matter, using the Home Assistant Matter Hub add-on. The same approach also works for Amazon Alexa and Apple Home.
This is a true set-it-and-forget-it solution—fast, local, and incredibly powerful.
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Why Use Matter to Connect Home Assistant to Google Home?
Home Assistant already offers several ways to control your smart home with voice:
- Home Assistant Voice PE
- Google Home
- Amazon Alexa
- Apple Home
Traditionally, Google Home, Alexa, and Apple Home integrations rely heavily on the cloud. While that works fine, many smart home enthusiasts prefer:
- Local control
- Better privacy
- Lower latency
- No recurring subscriptions
By using Matter, Home Assistant can expose your devices locally to Google Home. While Google Home itself still uses the cloud for voice recognition, the actual device control stays local.
Key Benefits
- ⚡ Faster response times
- 🔒 Improved privacy
- 💸 No subscription required
- 🎙️ Google’s excellent speech recognition
- 🧠 Works with automations, scripts, sensors, lights, and much more
What Is the Home Assistant Matter Hub?
The Home Assistant Matter Hub is an add-on created by t0bst4r. It allows Home Assistant to act as a Matter Bridge, making your Home Assistant entities visible to:
- Google Home
- Amazon Alexa
- Apple Home
Supported Entity Types
The Matter Hub supports a wide range of Home Assistant entities, including:
- Automations
- Buttons
- Binary sensors
- Climate devices
- Covers
- Fans
- Humidifiers
- Input booleans & input buttons
- Lights
- Locks
- Media players
- Scenes
- Scripts
- Sensors
- Switches
- Vacuums
That’s a massive amount of control — all exposed locally via Matter.
Step 1: Add the Matter Hub Repository to Home Assistant
Before installing the add-on, you need to add the repository to Home Assistant.
- Open Home Assistant
- Go to Settings → Add-ons
- Open the Add-on Store
- Click the three dots (⋮) in the top-right corner
- Select Repositories
- Paste this repository URL: https://github.com/t0bst4r/home-assistant-addons
- Click Add
Once added, close the dialog.
Step 2: Install the Home Assistant Matter Hub Add-on
After adding the repository:
- Search for Home Assistant Matter Hub in the Add-on Store
- Open the add-on
- Click Install
- Enable Start on boot
- (Optional) Enable Show in sidebar
Once installed, start the add-on and open the Web UI.
Step 3: Create a Matter Bridge
Inside the Matter Hub Web UI:
- Click Create Matter Bridge
- Give it a name (for example: Test Home Assistant)
- Enter your Country Code (e.g.,
NL,US,DE) - Go to Include settings
This is where things get really powerful.
Step 4: Choose Which Entities to Expose
You can control exactly which Home Assistant entities appear in Google Home.
Available Include Options
- Domain (e.g.
light) - Pattern (e.g.
light.office_*) - Platform
- Area
- Entity category
- Label (recommended)
Why Labels Are the Best Option
Using labels allows you to automatically expose new devices without reconfiguring Matter Hub — perfect for a set it and forget it setup.
Important Label Rules
If your label in Home Assistant is:
Google HomeYou must enter it in Matter Hub as:
google_homeRules:
- Replace spaces with underscores (
_) - Use lowercase characters only
Save the configuration once done.
Step 5: Pair Home Assistant with Google Home
After creating the Matter Bridge:
- Open the bridge configuration
- You’ll see a QR code
- Open the Google Home app
- Add a new device
- Scan the QR code
Your Home Assistant entities will now appear in Google Home 🎉
This process works exactly the same for Alexa and Apple Home.
Step 6: Create and Assign Labels in Home Assistant
To control which entities appear in Google Home:
- Go to Settings → Areas, Labels & Zones
- Open Labels
- Create a new label (e.g.
Google Home) - Assign an icon if you like
Assign Labels to Entities
- Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Entities
- Filter by Label
- Open an entity
- Click the cogwheel
- Add the Google Home label
- Save
Any entity with this label will instantly be controllable via Google Home.
Voice Control Demo (Examples)
Once configured, you can use commands like:
- “Hey Google, turn off Office Front”
- “Hey Google, set Office Front to 50 percent”
- “Hey Google, set Office Front temperature to 20 degrees”
- “Hey Google, turn off mail arrived”
The response time is fast and reliable thanks to local control.
Current Limitation: Aliases Are Not Supported (Yet)
One downside of the current setup is that entity aliases are not recognized by Google Home.
For example:
- Entity name:
Office Front - Alias:
Front Office
Google Home will only recognize Office Front for now.
Hopefully, future updates to the Matter Hub add-on will add alias support.
Final Thoughts
Using Matter to connect Home Assistant with Google Home is one of the best ways to get fast, reliable, and privacy-friendly voice control.
✅ Local control ✅ No subscription ✅ Works with Google Home, Alexa, and Apple Home ✅ Extremely flexible using labels
If you’re serious about smart home automation, this setup is an absolute must.
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