Home Assistant: HA-ppy to Help

Home Assistant What’s New June 2026: Card Picker, Automation Editor & Zone Triggers

In this episode, we dive into Home Assistant 2026.6, a release focused on making dashboards smarter and automations more intuitive than ever. At the center of this update is the new Card Picker for dashboards. Instead of starting with a specific card type, you now begin with your entities and areas. Home Assistant then suggests the most relevant cards with live previews, making dashboard creation faster, more visual, and far less trial-and-error. We also explore major improvements to the Automation Editor. New purpose-driven triggers and conditions make it easier to build meaningful automations without complex setup. This includes four new zone-based triggers and conditions, allowing you to react when people or devices enter or leave custom zones such as home, work, gym, or any location you define. These updates significantly improve how Home Assistant handles context-aware automation across Zigbee, ESPHome, Bluetooth, and other integrations. Combined with refinements to dashboards and automation workflows, this release continues to push Home Assistant toward a more accessible and intelligent smart home experience. We’ll break down what’s new, how it works in practice, and why it matters for both beginners and advanced users building complex smart home setups. As always, we also highlight important changes, improvements, and things you should check before updating your system.

Home Assistant 2026.5: Native RF Support, Serial Proxies & The Open Roadmap

In this episode, Anna and Jan dive into the May 2026 release of Home Assistant. True to its title, “We’re on the same frequency now,” version 2026.5 brings a long-awaited feature to the heart of the Open Home: native support for Radio Frequency (RF). We explore how this release bridges the gap between "old" hardware and modern automation, making your smart home more sustainable and versatile than ever. * RF as a First-Class Citizen: Following last month's Infrared update, Home Assistant now officially supports Radio Frequency. We explain how you can use ESPHome or Broadlink (RM4 Pro) as transmitters to control "dumb" devices like motorized blinds, ceiling fans, and Honeywell string lights. * Serial Ports Over the Network: A game-changer for advanced users. Learn how ESPHome serial proxies allow you to connect smart meters or AV receivers to Home Assistant even if they are floors away from your server. * The Maintenance Dashboard: Say goodbye to "silent" sensor deaths. The new built-in dashboard automatically tracks battery levels across your entire home and highlights what needs replacing. * Natural Language Automations: "Labs" gets a major upgrade with duration support. We discuss how to build intuitive automations like "If the garage door is open for 30 minutes, send a notification." * The Open Roadmap: Fresh from the State of the Open Home 2026 in Utrecht, we talk about Home Assistant’s new public roadmap and how every user—not just developers—can help shape the future of the platform. * Redesigned UI & Smarter Tools: A fresh look for robot vacuums and lawn mowers (including "Clean by Area"), the new Shortcut Card, and a massive overhaul of the templating documentation with context-aware autocomplete in the code editor. Also in this episode: 12 new integrations (including Victron GX and Denon RS232), GPT-5.5 support in OpenAI Conversation, and crucial breaking changes regarding Person/Device Tracker triggers and Ring doorbells. Host Note: Always remember to create a backup before upgrading and read the full breaking changes list in the official release notes! Highlights of this Release: