WLED's audio-reactive effects usually need a microphone on the controller or another device that listens to the room and sends the data over the network. Music Assistant can now be that sender. On 25 October 2026 the Music Assistant server merged a new WLED Audio Sync plugin that analyses the music it is playing and sends it to WLED using WLED's ow
Nanoleaf's Matter-over-Thread bulbs, downlights, GU10s and lightstrips have a new firmware, 5.1.45, and this week the company's app caught up with it. Version 12.0.0 of the Nanoleaf app, which its release notes say adds "support for firmware 5.x.x on Nanoleaf Matter over Thread devices", started rolling out on Android on 20 October and on iOS on 21
Helty Flow Cloud is a new Home Assistant integration for Helty Flow decentralized heat-recovery ventilation units that use the recent control panel, the one set up through the Helty Home app. The integration was merged into the development branch on 19 October 2026, and its documentation names 2026.11 as the first release. On 24 October two more pu
ESPHome has a new duco component for Duco heat recovery ventilation units. It was merged into the development branch on 23 October 2026 together with its documentation, so it should ship in ESPHome 2026.11. Pieter Kokx opened the pull request in December 2024, and it took almost two years and a rewrite to current ESPHome conventions before it went
Turning on a Matter air conditioner from Home Assistant could switch it to heating, even if it had been cooling before it was turned off. Pull request #181458, merged into the development branch on 23 October 2026 and marked as a breaking change, fixes that. It is due in Home Assistant 2026.11.
On 23 October 2026 two pull requests were merged into zigpy/zha, the library behind the ZHA integration in Home Assistant. They change how new Zigbee groups get their addresses and make group creation fail with a clear error instead of quietly doing something else. Neither is in a zha release yet (the latest is 2.3.1 from 9 October), so they will r
The DS18B20 is the sensor people reach for when they want to know the temperature of something rather than the air in a room: the flow and return pipes of a heating system, a hot water tank, a freezer, an aquarium, the space under the floor. It comes in waterproof probes on a cable, it talks over a single data line, and you can hang several of them
tado° is rolling out a set of app updates for its heating system over the coming weeks. The Munich company announced them on 22 October 2026. The two most interesting ones, smarter open window detection and a mould risk index, are only for tado° X owners who pay for AI Assist.
Philips Hue started rolling out Bridge Pro software version 6.3.2071556020 on October 22, 2026. According to the official release notes, it prepares the Bridge Pro for Custom AI Behaviors, the natural-language automation feature Signify announced at IFA in early September. The feature itself is not on yet. The release notes say it "will be enabled
