Home Assistant Podcast

Home Assistant 2026.8 is here, we unpack the biggest changes. From port 8123 to port 80 for new Home Assistant OS installs, customizable entity ID formats, moon and vibration automation triggers, and the device-registry separation that may affect merged devices.

Watch this episode on YouTube
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA245

Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:47 - Perth meetup and SmartThings API
00:07:47 - Battery charging and leak sensors
00:14:52 - Port 80 and HTTP settings
00:18:03 - UI wording and entity IDs
00:22:49 - Moon and vibration automations
00:24:23 - Device registry separation
00:30:00 - Template editor
00:32:21 - Dashboards and integration updates
00:36:37 - New Home Assistant integrations
00:44:48 - Breaking changes and upgrade advice
00:46:34 - Rohan's house move
00:48:14 - Proxmox migration and Zigbee
00:51:02 - Z-Wave migration and lock codes
00:55:31 - AI agent automations
00:57:36 - Network troubleshooting with Hermes
00:59:48 - Picture frame project and closing

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com

Zooz
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Apollo Automation
Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Want Phil to help with your smart home?
You’ve heard him troubleshoot Home Assistant on the podcast. Now you can book him to troubleshoot yours. From broken automations and confusing YAML to dashboards, devices, and complete smart home setups: https://smarthomecto.com

Products Discussed
SwitchBot Candle Warmer Lamp: https://amzn.to/45plQEt
Roborock Q10 robot vacuum: https://amzn.to/4fVu105
Harbor Sleep Baby Monitor: https://amzn.to/3Rt73VV

Products we Recommend

Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Website
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi
Website
Twitter: @rohank9
Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Phil and Rohan chat with Eugene about how he built a deeply automated smart home using Home Assistant, Raspberry Pi, Zigbee, Shelly devices, Aqara sensors, and even C#/.NET with NetDaemon. They explore practical automations for alarms, presence, notifications, kid management, and more.

Watch this episode on YouTube
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA244

Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters
00:00:00: Intro
00:02:00: Getting Into Automation
00:04:15: Choosing Hardware Wisely
00:06:30: Network Lessons Learned
00:10:30: Current Home Setup
00:15:00: Presence And Notifications
00:20:30: Actionable Alerts
00:27:55: Chores And Screen Time
00:34:20: Morning Summaries
00:39:00: .NET Automations
00:46:50: School Dates

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com

Zooz
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Apollo Automation
Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Products Discussed
Shelly One relay: https://amzn.to/4wUFxj6
CC2531 Zigbee controller: https://amzn.to/3RFhwgS
Amazon Echo Dot: https://amzn.to/44DIBUB
Aqara contact sensor: https://amzn.to/4vIfUky
Aqara passive infrared motion sensor: https://amzn.to/4wWJ3tn
Products we Recommend

Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Website
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi
Website
Twitter: @rohank9
Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Phil and Rohan chat with Khaled, a periodontist who turned Home Assistant into the central brain of his home. From Roomba integrations and Soma shades to barcode-driven dog treat tracking, e-ink dashboards, and local AI workflows, this conversation is packed with practical smart home ideas.

Watch this episode on YouTube
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA243

Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:56 Khaled’s Background
00:04:21 First Home Assistant Use
00:08:52 GUI Over YAML
00:12:24 Hardware And Green
00:16:27 Grocy And Barcodes
00:20:45 Scanner Workflow
00:26:20 NFC And More Ideas
00:35:35 Voice PE Remote
00:39:52 Terminal Displays
00:47:23 Local AI Tools
00:53:04 Automating CV Updates
00:56:39 Paperless NGX
01:00:46 Hermes And Agents

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com

Zooz
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Apollo Automation
Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Symcode 2D QR Bluetooth Barcode Scanner
Products we Recommend

Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Website
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi
Website
Twitter: @rohank9
Buy Rohan a Coffee

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Phil and Rohan chat with Jason from the UK about building a truly proactive smart home with Home Assistant. From room-aware dashboards and presence detection to Alexa routines, Google Calendar, Todoist, Zigbee, ESP32s, and AI-powered driveway monitoring, Jason shares how he turned automations into a daily life assistant.
Watch this episode on YouTube
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA242

Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:06 Jason’s smart home journey
00:05:19 Voice, automations, and helpers
00:12:00 Car, tea, and problem solving
00:18:45 Presence detection and room dashboards
00:26:50 Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Matter choices
00:34:35 Todoist and calendar automation
00:44:30 Doorbells, garages, and briefings
00:52:40 Driveway security and Gemini
00:58:03 Sports dashboards and future plans
01:05:07 Getting started with smarter automations

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com

Zooz
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Apollo Automation
Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Clean My Mac
Get Tidy Today! Get 7 days free and use our code ASSISTANT for 20% off

Products Discussed
LinknLink presence sensor and IR blaster: https://amzn.to/4oXjLIF
Products we Recommend

Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Website
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi
Website
Twitter: @rohank9
Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode Phil and Rohan chat with Omri, the creator of QuickBars, an Android TV and Google TV app for controlling Home Assistant from the couch. They dig into his smart home journey, how he replaced a slow proprietary Zigbee setup, and how Home Assistant became the central brain for his parents' house and his own apartment.
Watch this episode on YouTube
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA241

Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:26 QuickBars overview
00:03:07 Broken smart home origin
00:05:58 Rebuilding with Home Assistant
00:10:04 Running two Home Assistant homes
00:14:51 House automations and cameras
00:18:57 Building QuickBars
00:28:29 App development lessons
00:31:34 Community response and use cases
00:35:04 Notification and camera features
00:38:40 Open source and AI coding
00:42:13 Apartment automations and alerts
00:48:39 Wrapping up QuickBars

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com

Zooz
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Apollo Automation
Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Products Discussed
Google Coral: https://amzn.to/4b44TCm
Nvidia Shield: https://amzn.to/4eCreYH
HomePod: https://amzn.to/4uWeu5A
Products we Recommend

Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Website
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi
Website
Twitter: @rohank9
Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy