Music Assistant 2.10.9 came out on 30 October 2026. The headline change removes a chore that ESPHome 2026.10.0 introduced: since that release, Sendspin connections are encrypted, and each ESPHome speaker had to be paired with Music Assistant by pasting a pairing token. With 2.10.9 and Home Assistant 2026.11, Music Assistant can do the pairing itself.

How auto pairing works

The feature needs three pieces, and all of them are now released or in beta:

  • ESPHome 2026.10.0 devices can hand out their Sendspin pairing token on request and report their Sendspin client id to Home Assistant. Both changes went into that release.
  • Home Assistant 2026.11, currently in beta (2026.11.0b0 appeared on 28 October), adds two admin websocket commands to the ESPHome integration. One streams the Sendspin client ids of connected devices, the other fetches a device's pairing token. Home Assistant asks the device for a fresh token each time and never stores it.
  • Music Assistant 2.10.9 follows the client ids Home Assistant announces. As soon as a Sendspin client is both connected over an encrypted link and announced by Home Assistant, Music Assistant fetches its token and pairs it. According to the pull request there is no polling and no delay.

If Home Assistant does not have its side yet, for example on 2026.10.x, the subscription fails and auto pairing is simply off. Manual pairing keeps working.

Fixes for multiroom players

Most of the rest of the release is bug fixes, and Snapcast gets the biggest share:

  • The queue now advances to the next track and stops when the player becomes unavailable.
  • Announcements no longer skip music or get cut off at the end, and elapsed time is right afterwards.
  • Replaying after a stop no longer plays old audio, and pressing next no longer leaves the old track playing for seconds.

Squeezelite groups no longer skip the playing track after an announcement on one member, a restarted group member no longer stays silent, and the position no longer jumps ahead after resume or seek. WiiM players update their position straight away instead of after up to 30 seconds. Disconnected players stop showing as available and playing.

Other fixes cover HEOS setup, legacy AirPlay receivers, Chromecast controls and per-model HTTP profiles, Qobuz performer names, Spotify on Soloist, Live365 station images and audiobooks in built-in playlists. Sonic analysis is now skipped for audiobooks, podcasts and radio.