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! 🎉

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! 🎉

Home Assistant 2026.8! 🎉

Hi, I’m Ashley, the Technical Program Manager at the Open Home Foundation. With Frenck taking a well-deserved break, Bram and I are teaming up to handle things this time around.

We have been working on a lot over the past few weeks, and I’m excited to share some of what we have done for this release!

If there’s one thread tying this release together, it’s a direction we care about: making Home Assistant something you don’t need to be technical to use. This release is another step along that path.

Enjoy the release!

- Ashley

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 equal terms.

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 our visitors are, or compromising their privacy.

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.

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.

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).

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