Home Assistant 2026.3 has arrived: Here’s what’s new
Home Assistant, the open source server for the smart home, just received another big update. Home Assistant version 2026.3 is now rolling out with more automation improvements, wake words for Android devices, and more.
This is a lighter release in terms of new features, as the development team has focused on “reviewing, fine-tuning, and merging the incredible contributions from our community.” This includes numerous bug fixes, the ability to use Continue on Error in the Automation Editor, and many under-the-hood improvements.
There are, however, still some major changes. You can now send robot vacuums to clean one or more specific zones on demand, after matching the vacuum’s detected segments to Home Assistant’s zones. It’s already supported by Matter, Ecovacs, and Roborock integrations, and this is expected to expand to more devices in future releases.
The blog post explained: “If the layout of your vacuum’s internal segments changes (for example, after a remapping in the manufacturer’s app or after the vacuum rediscovers its surroundings), Home Assistant will notice. A repair issue will notify you that the segments have changed, so you can update your mapping and make sure everything stays in sync.”
Home Assistant 2026.3 also brings some improvements to the Energy dashboard. The “Now” view can show you real-time energy consumption, gas flow and water flow without accessing other menus. The tabs have also been reorganized into Electricity, Gas, and Water, and the energy bar chart tooltips now include the day of the week.
If you have the Home Assistant Companion app on an Android device, it can now use wake words like “Okay Nabu,” “Hey Jarvis,” and “Hey Mycroft” before speaking a command. All voice processing happens locally on your device, using the microWakeWord engine. However, this requires continuous microphone access and CPU usage, so you may want to use automations to only enable it when you’re at home.
Finally, there are some new integrations to check out. Home Assistant can now connect to Hegel Music Systems amplifiers, Hypontech solar inverter systems, Indevolt energy storage devices, Zinvolt batteries, Ghost blogs, and even the New York MTA for subway and bus arrival predictions. OneDrive for Business and iDrive e2 buckets have been added as Home Assistant backup locations.
If you already have Home Assistant, the update should appear in the system dashboard. You can set up a fresh installation with the instructions on the Home Assistant website.
Source: Home Assistant
