Three features merged into ESPHome's development branch on 14 and 15 October 2026 tackle problems many makers know well: radar zones limited to rectangles, typing a Wi-Fi password into a fallback hotspot, and firmware updates that die on a weak link. ESPHome 2026.10 is still in beta (2026.10.0b4 came out this week), so these changes are headed for
An ESP32 running ESPHome will be able to work as a Thread border router. Pull request #18104 by Pawel Puterla, his first contribution to ESPHome, was merged into the development branch on 15 October 2026, and the matching documentation landed in the next branch of esphome.io the same day. The development branch is now 2026.11.0-dev, so the feature
ESPHome is learning to ask a USB-C charger for more than 5 V. The new fusb302b component by Remco van Essen drives onsemi's FUSB302B USB-C controller from an ESP32 over I2C and negotiates a USB Power Delivery contract as a sink. It was merged into the development branch in three parts between 14 and 15 October 2026, with documentation on 15 October
ESPHome now has a native hdmi_cec component. Pull request #9189 by Jos van Eijndhoven was merged into the development branch on 15 October 2026. That branch is already numbered 2026.11.0-dev, and the component is not in the 2026.10 betas, so 2026.11 is the first release that can include it. An ESPHome device wired to the CEC line of an HDMI port he
On 14 October 2026 ESPHome maintainers published a developer note for a breaking change that lands with 2026.10.0: remote_base protocol methods are no longer virtual, receiver listener and dumper lists are fixed-size vectors sized at code generation, and a protocol’s .cpp file is compiled only when the configuration actually uses it. Ordinary YAML
Espressif published esp-pqc on 14 October 2026, an ESP-IDF component that adds the two NIST post-quantum algorithms, ML-KEM (FIPS 203) and ML-DSA (FIPS 204), to existing Espressif chips. It runs entirely in software, so you can try post-quantum TLS 1.3 and an extra firmware signature check at boot without waiting for new silicon. Espressif position
VIEWE, a Shenzhen display maker, has released the PLCM-UES31S043H800V480C-U, a 4.3-inch touch display module built on Espressif's new ESP32-S31. CNX Software, which wrote it up on 14 October 2026, says it appears to be the first third-party development board with that chip. VIEWE sells it for $38.99 in its own store and plans to list it on AliExpre
If an ESPHome device of yours drives a screen through ili9xxx, st7735, st7789v, qspi_dbi or rpi_dpi_rgb, it now has an end date. On 14 October 2026 J. Nick Koston merged five small pull requests that set ESPHome 2027.5.0 as the version in which these display components will be removed.
Exaviz released firmware 1.2.0 for the radio on its Cruiser boards on 14 October 2026. It adds a Zigbee mode: the ESP32-C6 module on the board can now be the Zigbee coordinator for Home Assistant, with no USB dongle.
