If you use Home Assistant daily to control your home, the latest major update comes packed with changes that go far beyond a simple facelift. This version introduces... Home Assistant Labs, a new, more intuitive automation system, and a real-time energy dashboard, in addition to important adjustments to dashboards, mobile integration and a good number of new services.
At the same time, there are modifications that are not minor at all: Support for 32-bit systems is discontinued, several older integrations are removed, and a syntax change in templates is announced. This will require you to review your settings before the next major update. Let's take a closer look so you're clear on what you gain from the update and what you should check before clicking the update button.
Before updating: backups and blocking changes
The first thing to keep in mind is that this version introduces Major modifications that could damage part of your installation if you're not preparedThis is not your typical minor patch: there are integrations that disappear, architectures that are no longer supported, and templates that will become obsolete.
Therefore, the sensible recommendation is Do not update on the same day the version is released and wait a few days for possible bug fixes to appear.During those first few days, minor revisions are usually released that iron out bugs detected by the more impatient members of the community.
Before updating, it's almost mandatory that you do a full backup or snapshot of your instanceIf you're virtualizing Home Assistant on Proxmox, QNAP Virtualization Station, VMware, or another hypervisor, take advantage of their snapshot options so you can revert to a previous state if something goes wrong. This precaution can save you a lot of headaches.
It's also very important that you review the official changelog for this version on the Home Assistant websiteThis document details all the integrations that are being removed, those that are changing their behavior, and those that require adjustments. A careful reading of these notes will tell you if any of your critical configurations are at risk.
Home Assistant Labs: the official lab for new features
The big star of this version is the new Home Assistant Labs, a section designed as a laboratory for testing advanced but still experimental featuresYou'll find it under Settings > System > Labs, where you can activate or deactivate each module that the developers release.
The idea is not to offer half-baked features, but reasonably mature modules that need real-world validation in user installationsYou activate them, test them, report your experience, and, depending on community feedback, they will either become official options or disappear without a trace. However, their use in critical production environments is not recommended.
One reassuring detail is that, by enabling certain Labs options, The system itself may suggest you create a backup before making the change.And if you're not satisfied with the result, you can disable the feature without restarting the entire instance, minimizing the risk.
Winter mode: snow on your panels
To launch this testing space, the developers have added a cute feature. Winter mode that makes snowflakes fall on your dashboardsIt is inspired by community projects and focuses solely on the aesthetic aspect.
This feature, which you can find within Labs, It offers nothing functional in terms of automation or sensorsIt simply transforms the interface into a Christmas-themed panel, perfect for wall-mounted tablets in the living room as the holidays approach. It's a visual touch that makes the experience a little more fun.
New automation system: triggers and conditions by objective
One of the areas where the most work has been done in this version is in drastically simplify the creation of automations, one of the aspects that most often stumps new users and, at the same time, the very heart of any advanced home automation installation.
Until now, setting up an automation system involved think in terms of states and numerical valuesIf the entity changes from off to on, if the temperature sensor value exceeds X degrees, if the attribute changes… This is very powerful, but not very intuitive for someone who just wants a light to turn on when they enter a room.
With the new Labs features, the concept of “specific triggers and conditions for each purpose”Instead of struggling with abstract states, you can build automations with phrases like "When a light turns on" or "If the temperature is greater than X", designed from real-world use and not from the internal data model.
The "Goals" tab in the automation editor
Activating the corresponding beta function in Labs makes it appear within the automations. a new tab called "Goals" in the "When" sectionThis panel organizes potential triggers by zones, floors, labels, areas, and device typesso that you can build rules based on where and what you want to act upon.
In practice, this allows you, for example, choose a whole floor, a room, or a set of entities marked with a label and let Home Assistant Labs suggest the appropriate triggers. You no longer need to remember the exact name of each sensor or light or sift through endless lists of entities.
This redesign addresses one of the community's major long-standing complaints: the complexity of navigating through hundreds of different entities when creating automationsNow the interface guides the process from the objectives (what you want to achieve, where and with what) and greatly reduces the learning curve.
Redesigned interface for triggers, conditions, and actions
This change is complemented by a New column-based interface for adding triggers, conditions, and actionsWhen you click on “add trigger”, a panel opens with categories in the left column (by entity, by state, by time, by event, etc.) and, when you select one, a more complete view with the available options is displayed on the right.
In addition, the editor has been reorganized so that conditions and actions are grouped more clearlyThis better distinguishes the core logic from the additional blocks. While the functional changes aren't radical, reading and maintaining complex automations is now much easier.
Another interesting advantage is that the system shows which specific entities will be affected by an area-based actionFor example, if you set up "Turn on lights" and choose a specific area, you'll see which lights and devices will be involved, visually organized, making it much easier to review the impact of each automation.
Reorganization of plants, zones, and smarter dashboards
The spatial organization of the home within Home Assistant Labs also receives a major overhaul. Now you can define the order of the plants and zones so that they appear as you want in the different menus, including the automation editor with Goals and integrated dashboards.
From the configuration of zones, labels, and locations, It is possible to drag and drop to place each floor and room in a logical order that better reflects the actual floor plan of the house. These changes are automatically applied to all dashboards that use that structure.
The "Home" panel is reinforced and is now considered a fully integrated dashboardIt features a new shortcut sidebar and a more efficient design. The panel editor has also been added. an undo/redo function with extensive history (up to 75 steps), inherited from the automation editor, allowing you to experiment without fear of leaving the panel a mess.
Default control panel and user configuration
Another very practical improvement is the possibility of Define a default system-level dashboard that is automatically applied to all usersThis panel appears at the top of the sidebar, replacing the generic control panel that came by default.
At the same time, each user retains the option to Override that global setting from your profile and choose your own preferred dashboard.This is ideal for environments where several people with different needs live together: a simple panel for children, a more complete one for adults, or a specific panel for the tablet at the entrance.
The dashboard cards also introduce smarter name managementYou can now specify that a card title is dynamically generated from the device, area, or entity name, in any order you define. This way, if you move a device to a different room, The tile name updates automatically without having to edit it manually..
Energy Panel: real-time power and water usage
The Energy dashboard, which was already one of the most used for monitoring kWh consumed and producedIt takes a very noticeable leap forward with the ability to display instant power and better break down other resources.
Until now, the focus has been primarily on accumulated energy (kWh) over different periods. With this version, you can Configure power sensors to indicate how many watts the home is demanding at any given time., or how much power is being exported to the grid or generated with solar panels.
Once these sensors are configured —for example, with devices such as Shelly EM or other DIN rail meters or inverter gateways—, in the "Power Sources" section and on the "Now" tab of the Energy panel you will be able to see the real-time power curve throughout the dayTurning on the oven, starting a dryer, or activating an electric car charging point is instantly reflected in the graph.
This approach makes many custom dashboards built to view live consumption. become unnecessary, as the Energy panel now covers that need nativelyIf you also have batteries, you will clearly see the sections where the house uses stored energy and the mains consumption drops to 0W.
Downstream water meters and water breakdown
The water section is also strengthened with the introduction of "Downstream" or secondary meters that allow consumption to be broken down by useIn addition to the main water meter, you can define sub-meters for garden irrigation, swimming pool, water softener, etc.
The dashboard will display this data. with Sankey-type diagrams that distribute total consumption among different usesThis is similar to how it's already done with different energy sources and destinations. For an installer or advanced user, this allows them to quickly identify where water is being wasted and propose specific improvements.
To accommodate all this information, The Energy panel adopts an interface with separate tabs for energy, power, water, gas, and other resourcesIf you only use electricity, you won't notice big changes; but in mixed installations with several monitored resources, the panel gains considerably in clarity.
New integrations and improvements to existing ones
As with every major release, a good batch of new integrations arrives. Among the highlights are: Backblaze B2, new Google integrations, expanded support for Philips Hue BLE and Xboxas well as devices from specific manufacturers.
Integration with Backblaze B2 allows you to use this service as cloud storage for backups directly from Home Assistant Labs, making it easy to have external backups without relying on DIY solutions. On Google's side, connectors appear for Google Weather and Google Air Quality, offering more comprehensive weather and air quality data (current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts, pollution indices, etc.).
In lighting, support is reinforced for Philips Hue via Bluetooth (Philips Hue BLE)This is key to using light bulbs that don't necessarily connect via a traditional bridge. An official integration is also included for... Xbox, which allows you to control the console and use its state as a trigger in automationsIn addition to this, there are integrations such as Airobot and EssentThe latter is geared towards dynamic electricity and gas pricing in certain markets.
Regarding existing integrations, several receive significant improvements. ESPhome and Shelly continue to evolveWith the latter achieving "platinum" quality level, Shelly inspires confidence for intensive use in professional installations. Shelly also incorporates enhanced Bluetooth capabilities for initial device setup.
Integrations are also being updated, such as Tuya, Reolink, the system monitor (which now exposes fan sensors)Prometheus and several AI connectors. Among the new artificial intelligence features, support has been added for OpenAI with the GPT-5.1 model and integration is improved with anthropic, expanding the options for conversational assistants and natural language-based automations.
AI and Home Assistant Companion for Android
For those already using features of AI and built-in voice assistants in Home AssistantThe debug panel becomes much more useful. Now you can inspect in detail. the system message sent to the model, the tools it called, and the reasoning it followed to generate the response.
This means it will be easier to understand why AI has ignored an entity, chosen another action, or not responded as you expectedThis is a very welcome improvement for those building custom home assistants or complex workflows supported by language models.
On the mobile side, the application Home Assistant Companion for Android integrates better with the phone ecosystem and Android AutoFrom the "more information" box of an entity, you can Add it directly as a widget on your home screen or mark it as a favorite in Android Autowithout having to go to the app's settings menu.
In practice, this allows, after creating an automated climate control or security system, Display the main thermostat, garage door, or front door as shortcuts on your mobile or in the car with just a few taps, perfect for less technical users.
Upgrade experience: progress bar and internal improvements
A small but much-anticipated detail: when you update Home Assistant or an add-on, You will now see a progress bar with the actual percentage of the installation status.Until now, only a brief "Installing..." message was displayed, making it difficult to know if the process had stalled or was progressing.
In the background, work continues on improve system stability and maintainabilityThere are adjustments in the log subsystem designed to reduce writes to microSD cardsThis is key to extending the lifespan of installations running on Home Assistant OS. The logs remain accessible from the web interface, but their impact on the operating system is minimized.
Critical changes that can break your installation
Beyond the attractive new features, this version brings Three major changes that could seriously affect existing facilities: removal of integrations, end of 32-bit support, and syntax changes in templates.
First, the team has decided Remove several integrations that had low adoption or maintenance issuesAmong the most notable removals are those from Domino's Pizza and Flick Electric. Some integrations are also being discontinued because they no longer fit with currently supported installation methods, such as certain Bluetooth trackers, CUPS, Decora, facial recognition and detection with dlib, Eddystone temperature sensors, and others. It's essential to check the official list to see if you use any of these.
Second, the installation methods in 32-bit architectures will no longer receive updates and security patchesIf your instance is still running on a machine like this, it's an absolute priority: You should plan the migration to a supported architecture as soon as possible. (for example, 64 bits) so you don't get stuck on a vulnerable and unsupported version.
Final considerations
Finally, it is announced that starting with version 2026.6 Templates that do not use the new Home Assistant syntax will stop workingIn this version we are dealing with, the system will begin to display warnings indicating which templates are considered outdated and need to be updated.
The recommendation is to dedicate some time to Review all the templates you have in your configuration, automations, and dashboards., compare them with the Official documentation of Home Assistant templates and adapt them to the current syntax. If you leave it until the last minute, you might find that a future update disables a large part of your automation logic all at once.
With all these changes, this version of Home Assistant Labs becomes a particularly powerful update: Labs opens the door to experimenting with advanced features such as goal-based automations, dashboards gain order and flexibility, the Energy panel becomes a more professional tool, and new integrations and AI strengthen the ecosystem.But at the same time, it requires reviewing hardware, legacy integrations, and templates to ensure your installation continues to run smoothly in the coming months. Share this information and more users will learn about Home Assistant Labs.
