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.

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 something we’ve been chasing for years: more power, less complexity. Instead of starting from Home Assistant’s internals, which entity, which state, which kind of trigger, you start from what you actually want your home to do. When the bedroom drops below 18°C, turn on the heating. That’s it. No technical traps, no quirks to memorize. And because integrations can teach the automation engine their own triggers and conditions, it only gets better from here. All of it right there in our beautiful user interface.

The nice thing is, nothing breaks. All your existing automations keep working, worry-free. We’ve also written tons of great documentation explaining every single trigger, condition, and action, with examples to learn from. And if you’re one of those people who prefers writing automations in YAML instead of the UI, you’re in for an amazing experience too. User experience is not a synonym for “the UI”. YAML users deserve good user experience too.

But honestly? I’ve got a second favorite this release, and that surprised me a little. Activity, what many of you still know as the logbook, has been rebuilt into a slick and clean timeline. 😍 It reads top to bottom like a feed, groups entries by day, and finally speaks the same language as the rest of Home Assistant. I keep opening it just to look at it.

And that’s just the start. There’s a new update-all button, dedicated panels for infrared and radio frequency, an overhauled ZHA Zigbee device management, and 10 new integrations from our community.

One more thing before you dive in: the Open Home Foundation is exhibiting at IFA Berlin for the first time, from September 4 to 8, 2026. We’d love to meet you there, so come say hello. There’s also a community meetup on Sunday, September 6, and everyone’s welcome. You can read all about it here.

Enjoy the release!

../Frenck

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 foundation – giving it a new home where it would be safeguarded for the future. Together we announced our plans to take Matter support in Home Assistant in a completely new direction: we set out to rebuild the Open Home Foundation Matter Server – the engine that powers Matter in Home Assistant – on matter.js.

After four months of beta testing, with our community fixing bugs and contributing new features along the way, today we’re thrilled to present the newest version of Matter for Home Assistant! 🎉

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.

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 that “add a card” dialog for way too long, picking cards almost at random just to see if they look good with the data I have.

So you can imagine my excitement for my personal favorite of this release: the new card picker. Instead of asking “which card type do I want?”, it now asks “which thing in your home do you want to show?”, and then suggests cards that actually make sense for it, with live previews using your own data. For someone like me, that’s not just easier; it’s genuinely inspiring. It nudges me towards combinations I would not have thought of on my own. 💡

This fits into a bigger direction I keep getting more excited about: Home Assistant getting better at starting from the thing you want to do, instead of asking you to first learn the building blocks. The same idea is what makes purpose-specific triggers and conditions in Home Assistant Labs feel so right, and this release brings them a big step closer to graduating out of Labs with brand new zone triggers and conditions. 📍

A close second favorite for me this release is everything happening around that in the automation editor: live test indicators on your conditions, target counts on every device, area, floor, and label, and proper notes you can attach to any step. Individually they are small quality-of-life touches; together, they make building automations feel a whole lot more transparent. ✨

And there is plenty more to love in this release: new tile card features, Z-Wave smart locks catching up with their Matter siblings, a friendlier Apps page, and another big batch of new integrations from our community. 🚀

Enjoy the release!

../Frenck

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.

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 to the program! They really stood out from the crowd at CES 2026 this January with their new product, the Slate Switch. This battery-powered smart scene controller simply snaps over existing switches – ideal if you rent your home, or don’t fancy working with wiring. We’re always on the lookout for devices that make setting up your smart home easier, so we’re delighted to have zunzunbee on board!

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 planning, the decision-making, and the prioritizing out where everyone can see it, follow along, and join in. And “joining in” doesn’t mean you have to write a single line of code or even consider yourself technical. Sharing how you use Home Assistant, telling us what frustrates you, what you wish existed, voting on ideas, helping a fellow user on the forums or Discord, translating, writing documentation, or simply leaving a thoughtful comment on a roadmap item: it all counts, and it all shapes where this project goes next. 🤝

A great first step in that direction also went live this month: our roadmap is now public. You can go browse it, see what we’re working on, what’s next, and (most importantly) comment on it, share your thoughts, and help shape it. We talked about all of this, and a lot more, on stage. So if you weren’t able to join us live, please go watch the recording. It is genuinely worth your time, and it’s the best invitation I can give you to come build the Open Home with us. 🗺️

Now, on to this release. My personal favorite this month is maybe a bit unexpected, considering it sits all the way at the end of this post: the completely reworked templating documentation. I know, I know, “documentation” doesn’t exactly scream headline feature. But hear me out: making Home Assistant more approachable is one of our biggest missions this year, and darn good documentation is a big part of that. We’ve expanded our documentation team and are investing heavily in this, and the new templating docs are the very first taste of what’s to come. I’m really proud of where this is heading. 📚

That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t also super stoked about radio frequency (RF) support landing this release. Just like last month’s infrared (IR) release, this brings a massive category of devices into Home Assistant natively: blinds, garage doors, ceiling fans, RF outlets, doorbells… you name it. Sure, there have always been clever workarounds and custom integrations to bridge some of these, but having it built right into the platform changes the game completely. There is so much cool stuff going on around this, and we’re only getting started. 📡

And there’s plenty more: a new Maintenance dashboard for your batteries, serial ports proxied over the network with ESPHome, new tile card features for media players, durations for purpose-specific automation triggers and conditions, redesigned more-info dialogs for vacuums and lawn mowers, autocomplete in the code editors, and 12 new integrations! 🚀

Enjoy the release!

../Frenck

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.

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 and starting again. Better for your home, and the planet 🌍.