Zigbee, Thread and Matter, ESPHome, voice and sensors, tested on a live Home Assistant setup.
Home Assistant 2026.11 turns HACS into a built-in Marketplace, gives ZHA groups their own devices and adds Zigbee Green Power. Here’s what’s in it, why the growth behind it matters, and what’s announced vs hoped for on partnerships.
A year and a half running every Zigbee device in my house through a SONOFF ZBDongle-P on Home Assistant: what it does well, and the setup mistakes that are on you, not the stick.
I’ve had an August lock on my front door since 2020. Here’s what ten days of Home Assistant data says about how it actually gets used, and how long the batteries really last.
Fifteen Zigbee devices, seven offline, zero routers. What I found in Home Assistant and how I’m fixing it.
Disclosure: Third Reality didn’t send me these and doesn’t know this review exists. There are no affiliate links in this post. How I review Short version: I run four of these, and I like them. They’re cheap, they’re running in Home Assistant over ZHA, and the one in my busiest room has logged about 2,300…
Disclosure: I bought these with my own money. There are no affiliate links in this post. How I review Short version: I’ve had these in my house for about a year, I talk to them every day, and I like them. Light control is where they earn their keep. The one real knock: every so…