Community Day 2026: Save the date!
You’ve been asking all year, and the wait is over… Mark your calendars, because Community Day 2026 will be held on Saturday, November 7! 🎉
Home Assistant
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Get ready to start building: The ESPHome Starter Kit is here!
Back in April during State of the Open Home 2026, we gave you a sneak peek of ESPHome’s very first official product… And after months of hard work alongside the community, the ESPHome Starter Kit is here! 🎉
2026.8: Approachable by design
Tip Don’t forget to join our release party live stream on YouTube on August 5, 2026, at 20:00 GMT / 12:00 PT / 21:00 CET! Tip There’s more to look forward to next week: the ESPHome Starter Kit is launching, and you’re invited to the official launch party! 🚀 Join the ESPHome team and their partners at Apollo Automation on the ESPHome YouTube channel on August 12 at 21:00 CEST. Familiar faces are…
A big win for Android interoperability
Something big just happened. As the Open Home Foundation’s Android developer for Home Assistant, I was invited by the European Commission to consult on Android interoperability. On July 16, 2026, the Commission adopted a decision requiring Alphabet to open up eleven Android features — including always-on wake word detection, ambient sensor access, and screen automation — to all assistants, on…
Making our web analytics open source with Plausible
The Open Home Foundation fights for privacy, choice, and sustainability. These principles are at the heart of everything we do, including how we handle website analytics. Our position is clear: we reject tools that track individuals across the web to monetize their data. Instead, we want aggregated, anonymized analytics that show how our websites are performing overall — without identifying who…
FireAvert joins Works with Home Assistant
Sound the alarm, because Works with Home Assistant just welcomed our newest partner to the program: FireAvert ! 🎉 Specialists in fire safety, FireAvert are on a mission to keep you and your home out of harm’s way. They bring the very first gas and electric appliance shutoff devices to the program, and with them, a whole lot of peace of mind. Where there’s smoke, there’s FireAvert As…
Building the device database together: Public preview now live
Ever since we introduced the idea of a community-powered device database at State of the Open Home 2025, our goal has been clear: create a “Wikipedia of smart home devices” based on real-world usage. In February, we took the first step by inviting Home Assistant users to voluntarily share anonymized device data to help us build it.
IoTorero joins Works with Home Assistant
The Works with Home Assistant program powers up this month as we welcome our new partner, IoTorero ! 🎉 Experts in pre-flashed smart home hardware, IoTorero bring the very first ESPHome-ready smart plugs and relays to the program (and that’s not all). IoTorero enters the ring If you’ve spent any time browsing pre-flashed smart home tech online, there’s a good chance you’ve come across IoTorero.…
Companion app: Changing support for Apple platforms
We’re updating which Apple platforms the Home Assistant Companion app supports, and because transparency is core to how we work, we want to be upfront about what’s changing. Starting with version 2026.8.0 of the Companion app, we will no longer support iOS 15, watchOS 8, or macOS 11. The last supported version for these platforms will be 2026.7.1. Here’s everything you need to know: Why we’re…
2026.7: Automations that speak your language
Tip Don’t forget to join our release party live stream on YouTube on July 1, 2026, at 20:00 GMT / 12:00 PT / 21:00 CET! Home Assistant 2026.7! 🎉 This is one of those releases I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. My favorite by far is what we’ve done with automations. Purpose-specific triggers and conditions graduate from Labs and become the new default for everyone. 🎉 It comes down to…
The Matter upgrade you’ve been waiting for
It started as a passion project. Yet in a few years matter.js has grown beyond my wildest expectations, becoming the backbone of the open source Matter ecosystem, and powering everything from Homebridge to openHAB, and even some commercial products. Ten months ago, I joined forces with the Open Home Foundation to work full time as Lead Developer of Matter. Shortly after, I donated matter.js to the…
Proxy all the things: no device left behind
Every smart home has them: the older devices that still work perfectly well but no longer fit neatly into a modern setup. Instead of letting them gather dust in a drawer, the Open Home Foundation’s projects can help you bring them back into the fold. Here’s how a little proxying can give your beloved old gear a new lease of life, and keep your smart home that bit more sustainable.
2026.6: Pick a card, any card
Home Assistant 2026.6! 🎉 I’m going to put my hand up right away: ✋ I am not a dashboard person. Not because I don’t like them; I love seeing what you all build. But designing a beautiful one is a kind of visual creativity I just don’t have. That’s a big part of why I love the built-in Home dashboard so much, it does the designing for me. But when I do build a custom dashboard, I usually stare at…
Sensereo joins Works with Home Assistant
We’re sensing a change in the air this month as we welcome Sensereo to the Works with Home Assistant program 🎉. Specialists in environmental sensing, Sensereo brings Matter smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms into the Home Assistant ecosystem – meaning more ways to keep your home open, safe, and sound. Built from a burning question… What happens if your smoke alarm goes off, but you’re not…
zunzunbee joins Works with Home Assistant
We are often asked if we prioritize “Big Tech” firms in the Works with program, but we’ve always been clear that newer companies are just as important to our certification as household names. Start-ups are innovators, and have their fingers on the pulse of community needs much more than brands that are only at the mercy of their investors. That’s just one reason we’re thrilled to welcome zunzunbee…
2026.5: We're on the same frequency now 📡
Home Assistant 2026.5! 🎉 What a few weeks it has been! Earlier this month, we hosted State of the Open Home 2026 live in Utrecht, the Netherlands. A big chunk of that day was dedicated to something we deeply care about: building in the open , and how we’re going to take that even further from here on out. 💙 Building in the open isn’t just about source code on GitHub. It’s about doing the…
BEGA joins Works with Home Assistant
How do you more or less double the number of Works with Home Assistant-certified devices available to our community? Have BEGA join the program! This German firm has spent more than 75 years designing a wide range of architectural lighting that sets the industry standard: and now they’re bringing that expertise to your smart home. Bright BEGA-nnings If you haven’t heard of BEGA before, you may…
ubisys joins Works with Home Assistant
We’re thrilled to welcome ubisys to Works with Home Assistant! This German company has been dedicated to smart home automation for more than 20 years, and offers a range of Zigbee devices designed to help you retrofit your home. If retrofitting is conjuring up images of avocado bathrooms 🥑 and artexed ceilings, fear not – it just means upgrading what you already have, rather than ripping it out…
2026.4: Infrared never left the chat
Home Assistant 2026.4! 🎉 I’ll be honest: when I first heard the pitch for infrared support in Home Assistant, I wasn’t exactly jumping out of my chair. Infrared? That’s old tech! But that’s exactly the point. Think about how many TVs, air conditioners, and other appliances sitting in your home right now have an infrared receiver but no smart features whatsoever. With this release, all of those…
Modernizing encryption of Home Assistant backups
Backups are one of those quiet, powerful features: when they work, you don’t notice them, but when you need them, they’re everything. We’ve evolved Home Assistant’s built-in backup format over the years to keep it safe and secure, especially when backing up to remote locations. As modern cryptography has advanced, we needed to build a system to match. SecureTar v3 is a purpose-built library for…