What's new in HomeAssistant 2026.1

10. 01. 2026

The first update of 2026 is here. Home Assistant 2026.1 focuses on making the system cleaner, more organized, and significantly better for mobile-first users.

1. Refined Mobile Dashboard: Summaries First

Mobile navigation has been completely reimagined for the Home Dashboard. Instead of hunting through tabs, users now have Summary Cards pinned at the very top.

Get instant feedback on active lights, climate settings, security status, and energy usage.
Your favorite entities and area cards follow right below for a thumb-friendly experience.
This "top-down" approach ensures that the most critical information is visible the moment you open the app.

2. The New "Devices" View: No More Orphaned Sensors

Managing a growing smart home can lead to clutter. The new "Devices" page on the Home Dashboard acts as a dedicated hub for devices that aren't currently assigned to an area.

Easily find sensors you just paired but haven't placed yet.
Locate devices that became "orphaned" after restructuring your rooms.
This simplifies administration without diving into the deep system settings.

3. Human-Friendly Automations: Expanding the Labs

Home Assistant Labs continues to bridge the gap between technical logic and human intent. The purpose-specific triggers and conditions are becoming more robust.

New Trigger Types: The list now includes specific triggers for sirens, scenes, software updates etc.
- Button triggers fire when a button entity has been pressed.
- Climate triggers now cover all common scenarios. You can trigger on HVAC mode changes, target temperature changes, or when the target temperature crosses a threshold. There are also triggers for current temperature and humidity changes, and even target humidity changes.
- Device tracker triggers let you automate based on when a device entered or left home, with support for the first device arriving, last device leaving, or any change. Don’t worry, person-specific triggers are coming soon, the device tracker ones were simply available sooner.
- Humidifier triggers will fire when a humidifier turns on or off, starts humidifying, or starts drying. You can also trigger on humidity changes or when humidity crosses a threshold.
- Light triggers let you automate based on brightness changes or when brightness crosses a specific threshold.
- Lock triggers can now fire when a lock is locked, unlocked, opened, or jammed.
- Scene triggers fire when a scene is activated.
- Siren triggers fire when sirens are turned on or off.
- Update trigger fires when an update becomes available.
Smart Locks: You can now trigger automations based on specific lock states like "jammed" or "unlocked," moving away from generic state changes.
Enhanced UI: The automation editor now features a redesigned target display, making it clear whether a trigger applies to a specific device, an entire floor, or a custom label.

4. Protocol Dashboards: Front and Center

Home Assistant’s commitment to open standards is more visible than ever. The Settings menu has been reorganized to give hardware protocols their own prominent section.

A new "Protocols" section appears right under core settings.
It provides quick access to Zigbee (ZHA), Z-Wave, Matter, and Thread dashboards.
The menu is dynamic—it only shows the protocols you actually have configured, keeping your UI clean.

5. Eight New Integrations to Explore

The January release expands the ecosystem with several key additions:

Fressnapf Tracker: Track your pet's location and activity levels natively.
eGauge: High-precision energy monitoring, perfect for solar enthusiasts.
Watts Vision+: Remote control for multi-zone smart heating systems.
HomeLink: Bridge the gap between your car and your home for seamless arrival routines.
Airpatrol: WiFi-based control for a wide range of AC units.

6. Power User Features & Notable Changes

Roborock Q7 Series: Now includes read-only support for battery levels and real-time cleaning data.
OpenAI: Now supports GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.2-pro models, including the new "xhigh" reasoning effort levels for smarter AI assistants.
ESPHome Action Responses: Developers can now implement complex request-response logic within ESPHome actions, allowing for more interactive DIY hardware.
Matter: Volume control support for Matter-enabled speakers.
Shelly: Ability to enable/disable Shelly Smarthome routines directly from HA.
Reolink & Hikvision: Expanded NVR support and event detection.

7. Energy Dashboard & Other Tweaks

The Energy dashboard received a refreshed date picker, making it easier to compare data across periods without excessive scrolling. New units like "gallons per day" have also been added for tracking heating oil consumption.

Conclusion

While 2026.1 is a smaller release, it brings vital quality-of-life improvements – especially for those who control their home primarily via smartphone. We wish you a happy and fully automated 2026!