Outside of CES, January is traditionally calmer in terms of new products, and Home Assistant 2026.1 is no exception. The team is opting for a lighter release, but it addresses precisely the areas where many users complained: the ergonomics of the Home dashboard on mobile, navigation to protocols, and making automations easier to read.
The Home dashboard progresses (especially on mobile)
The major visible change is the mobile navigation of the Home dashboard. Gone is the old tabbed navigation: at the top of the screen, Home Assistant now displays “summary cards” to directly access major areas like lighting, heating/cooling, security, media players, weather, or energy, followed by your favorites and rooms. In practice, it’s the kind of micro-change that saves time each time the app is opened.
Another very practical addition is a dedicated “Devices” page/section for equipment not assigned to a zone. Typically, the sensor you quickly included in Zigbee2MQTT, tested, and then forgot to place in the correct room… Now, it finally stands out without having to dig through the settings.
Simpler automations to “read” thanks to Labs triggers
Home Assistant continues to promote “purpose-specific triggers and conditions”, operable through Home Assistant Labs. The idea is excellent: instead of thinking “state change of an entity”, you choose understandable triggers like “when a light turns on”, “when a lock locks”, “when a device arrives home”, etc.
Version 2026.1 adds quite a few types of triggers: buttons, climate (HVAC modes, setpoints, thresholds…), device_tracker (first to arrive, last to leave, or any change), humidifier, light (dimmer/threshold), lock (locked, unlocked, open, jammed), scene, siren, and even “update available”.
A simple but telling example: triggering a “return home” scenario only when the first phone arrives, to avoid the entrance lighting turning on at each successive arrival. Or, in terms of security, launching a notification when a lock switches to “jammed” state (this prevents waiting for someone to be outside with the key that forces…).
It is also worth noting: the display of the “target” for automations has been reworked because these triggers can target an area, a floor, or even a label, not just an entity. The goal is for one to understand the intent of the automation at a glance (and this is appreciated when you have 150 scenarios).
Much more direct access to Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread…
Home Assistant admits a rather funny thing: many users didn’t even know there were dedicated dashboards/screens for protocols (Zigbee, Z-Wave, etc.). Thus, version 2026.1 reorganizes the Settings page and prominently places a “Protocols” block just after the core system settings. Moreover, it only appears for the protocols that are actually configured in your setup, so there’s no unnecessary menu.
For an installer, this is a real plus: during a setup, you can navigate quickly to the “right” screens (Zigbee, Thread/Matter, KNX…) without playing hide-and-seek in the menus.
Energy: the date selector finally in the right place
The Energy dashboard picks up a detail that makes all the difference on mobile: the period selector (day/week/month) becomes “sticky”, fixed at the bottom of the screen. Previously, you had to scroll up to change the period, then scroll down to the graph you were analyzing… not very fun. Now, you can compare the curves without losing track.
ESPHome: actions that can respond, not just obey
This is a more “geeky” but very promising new feature: Home Assistant supports “action responses” from ESPHome, introduced in ESPHome version 2025.12. Specifically, when you call an action on an ESPHome device, it can now return a structured response (JSON). This shifts from one-way communication to a true back-and-forth.
For example, you can imagine a “diagnostic” action that returns the Wi-Fi strength, a firmware version, or a “value on demand” and then utilize this feedback in a scenario (yes, we are starting to grasp more robust automations, involving control over what actually happened).
New integrations: 8 arrivals, and a few handy additions
Version 2026.1 welcomes eight new integrations: AirPatrol (climate via Wi-Fi boxes), eGauge (energy monitoring, often used on the solar side), Fluss+ (button), Fish Audio (text-to-speech), Fressnapf Tracker (GPS tracking for pets), HomeLink (routines from the vehicle), Watts Vision+ (zoned heating), and WebRTC (internal component for camera streaming).
There is also a “virtual integration” Levoit that points to VeSync, primarily to improve discoverability in terms of searching/adding integration.
Existing integrations: what truly deserves your attention
Several evolutions are easy to “sell” because they respond to common uses: Matter gains binary diagnostic sensors related to “remote sensing” of thermostats, useful for understanding what’s happening with heating.
SmartThings is enhanced with a flurry of new sensors, including air quality (PM1/PM2.5/PM10) and other appliance sensors.
In terms of energy, HomeWizard adds new battery charging modes, which will interest installations for self-consumption that are somewhat optimized.
Also worth noting, for users of the OpenAI component: the integration mentions support for GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.2-pro models, with an “xhigh” reasoning effort level.
Quality: KNX and UniFi Protect go platinum
Home Assistant continues to push its “integration quality scale.” In this release, KNX and UniFi Protect reach the platinum level, Autarco, SFR Box, Squeezebox and Watergate move to silver, and Growatt Server and TP-Link Omada advance to bronze. If you are deploying in a “client” environment, this kind of indicator gives a good trend on the maturity and maintainability.
Cameras: Hikvision and VIVOTEK can now be configured from the interface
Good news to avoid YAML: Hikvision and VIVOTEK become configurable directly from the Home Assistant UI. And for Hikvision, the release note also mentions the arrival of NVR support (automatic discovery of video channels, extended event detection).
Changes to watch out for before updating
Even though version 2026.1 is rather “quiet,” a few changes might break automations if they rely on specific values.
- Coolmaster: the “med” fan mode becomes “medium”, so if a scenario tests or forces “med”, it needs to be updated.
- Tailscale: the binary sensor “Supports hairpinning” is removed, as the API no longer provides it.
- UniFi Protect: several state values of lists (select) change to snake_case (e.g., “Mechanical” becomes “mechanical”), which may affect templates/scripts.
- Telegram bot: “extra” parameters in an action are no longer accepted, so if an old script sent unsupported fields, it will need to be cleaned up.
- VeSync: the “advancedSleep” mode becomes “advanced_sleep”.
Conclusion
Home Assistant 2026.1 does not strive to dazzle. It aims to make the tool smoother for daily use: a much more pleasant Home experience on mobile, a “Devices” page that prevents losing devices in the wild, more readable Labs triggers, direct access to protocols, and an energy dashboard that’s easier to compare. Add to that new integration features (especially for energy/solar, cameras, heating) and a few safeguards to check before updating, and you have a perfect release to start 2026 without complicating life.
PS: currently being in Las Vegas to cover CES, I will update the Home Assistant tests environment upon my return; I wouldn’t want to break anything while I can’t attend to it ;-)
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