Exploring Home Assistant 2023.9: Exciting Updates for a Smarter Home - Kiril Peyanski's Blog (2024)

Greetings, I’m thrilled to have you join me for an in-depth look at the latest updates in Home Assistant 2023.9 much-anticipated release. From enhanced onboarding to climate control, innovative tile card features, weather forecasts, and more, this release is packed with improvements to elevate your smart home experience. Without further ado, let’s dive into all the exciting details!

If you don’t want to read, then check my video below:

Table of Contents

A Refreshed Home Assistant 2023.9 Onboarding Experience

Home Assistant kicks off this release with a second round of onboarding enhancements, solidifying its commitment to a seamless user journey. With the Home Assistant 2023.9 update, the onboarding process receives a fresh makeover. The new look is designed to streamline your initial interaction with the platform.

Exploring Home Assistant 2023.9: Exciting Updates for a Smarter Home - Kiril Peyanski's Blog (1)

From quick language selection to an automatic derivation of default currency and measurement units based on your chosen country, getting started has never been smoother.

The compatible integrations discovered in your home are now listed for your convenience, allowing you to add and configure them later from the Integrations section. This newfound simplicity ensures that your entry into the world of Home Assistant is focused on setting up your smart home swiftly.

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Exciting Tile Card Features

Home Assistant 2023.9 brings a slew of fresh tile card features to the table, enriching your user experience. From HVAC modes to water heater settings, temperature control, cover positions, tilts, and even the unexpected but delightful inclusion of a lawn mower entity! These features contribute depth and versatility to your smart home setup while optimizing dashboard space usage.

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Elevated Climate Control with Visual Enhancements

The Home Assistant 2023.9 update introduces a notable visual makeover for the climate, humidifier, and water heater entities.

The spotlight shines on a chic circular slider that elegantly displays the current temperature as a dot along with setpoints.

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This visual representation is complemented by intuitive buttons for adjusting setpoints. The addition of a glowing indicator at the center adds a subtle yet impactful touch of visual feedback, enhancing your interaction.

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Download Your Smart Home Glossary

Before we delve deeper into the wonders of Home Assistant 2023.9, take a moment to enrich your smart home knowledge. My Smart Home Glossary is a treasure trove of explanations for common smart home terms and acronyms. Whether you’re new to home automation or a seasoned enthusiast, this resource is a must-have.

Download your free copy from here – https://automatelike.pro/glossary

Weather Forecasts

Next is the introduction of the weather forecast service in Home Assistant 2023.9. Say goodbye to navigating between different forecast entities. Now, with the weather.get_forecast service, you can seamlessly retrieve all your weather predictions in a single request.

Whether you’re seeking daily or hourly forecasts, this streamlined approach resides within one entity. Additionally, the revamped weather card on your dashboard allows you to select your preferred weather forecast display, granting you customization like never before.

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Embrace the Lawn Mower Entity

Speaking of new additions, let’s welcome the lawn mower entity to the stage! Home Assistant 2023.9 enables seamless integration of your lawn mower into the ecosystem. Presently, this integration supports MQTT and provides basic functionalities such as starting, pausing, and returning the mower to its home base.

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While advanced features are still in development, the introduction of this entity hints at even greater integration possibilities on the horizon.

Streamlined Template Sensors

Home Assistant 2023.9 introduces preview support for template sensors right within the UI.

This convenient feature eliminates the need to delve into YAML, allowing you to set sensor states using templates, select measurement units, and configure device and state classes with ease.

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Both sensors and binary sensors benefit from this UI-based approach. While advanced attributes may still require YAML adjustments, this enhancement significantly simplifies sensor setup.

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Discover Group Previews

Exploring Home Assistant’s 2023.9 release uncovers an interactive aspect to setting up helpers. Imagine having a sneak peek of your entity’s appearance before finalizing the settings. This new preview feature offers real-time visualization of your entity’s look based on your chosen settings.

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And speaking of groups, don’t miss the newly added event group, contributing further flexibility to your customization journey.

Unlock the Power of Home Assistant Webinars

If you’re itching to learn more, we have an exciting opportunity for you. Join our upcoming Home Assistant webinar where we’ll delve into official installation types and introduce a super simple method to get started on your PC in under 5 minutes.

Embrace the chance to elevate your smart home journey

Sign up today at https://automatelike.pro/webinar

Conclusion

As we wrap up our journey through Home Assistant 2023.9, I hope you’re as excited as I’m about these enhancements. From a revamped onboarding experience to stylish tile card features, advanced climate control visuals, and more, this release marks another step forward in the evolution of your smart home.

I’m Kiril, Thank you for accompanying us on this tour. Until next time, keep exploring, keep innovating, and keep making your home smarter than ever before.

If you’re hungry for more, be sure to check out my dedicated Home Assistant category with more articles tailored just for you

Exploring Home Assistant 2023.9: Exciting Updates for a Smarter Home - Kiril Peyanski's Blog (2024)

FAQs

Is Home Assistant complicated? ›

Home Assistant has a huge range of possibilities, so it can start out as a simple setup and then become more and more complex. In the beginning you will find it easy with a graphical interface, then you will want to do small things that the graphical interface can't and you learn that skill then and succeed.

How much does a Home Assistant cost? ›

Home Assistant Green is the easiest way to run Home Assistant for the low price of $99. Try out Home Assistant for your smart home or share the love with family and friends.

What is a smart home assistant? ›

Home Assistant is an on-premises software product with a focus on local control, which has been described as beneficial to the security of the platform, specifically when compared to closed-source home automation software based on proprietary hardware and cloud-services.

Who owns Home Assistant? ›

Paulus Schoutsen

Founder of Home Assistant. He sees Home Assistant as the key to the open and private home that everyone deserves. Since 2013, he has grown Home Assistant from a script turning on the lights at sunset into one of the major open source home automation frameworks with a worldwide community.

Are home assistants worth it? ›

A home assistant will be useless and won't do anything if you don't have any smart home device in your home. However, if you are having one or more smart home devices a Home Assistant can be a great way to enhance the functionality and features that will not cost you a fortune.

What is the easier alternative to Home Assistant? ›

Home Assistant alternatives
  • Gladys Assistant. 14 reviews. 11 alternatives. ...
  • Zuli Smartplug. Leave a review. 18 alternatives. ...
  • Josh.ai. 3 reviews. 18 alternatives. ...
  • Calaos. Leave a review. 3 alternatives. ...
  • Genee. Leave a review. 12 alternatives. ...
  • SmartRent. 4 reviews. 12 alternatives. ...
  • SwitchMate. Leave a review. ...
  • Advanced Flow. Leave a review.

What is the best equipment for Home Assistant? ›

Which hardware is best for Home Assistant? The “best” hardware depends on your specific needs and budget. For small setups, a Raspberry Pi 4 is excellent. For more extensive systems, consider an Intel NUC or Home Assistant Blue.

Does Home Assistant require a subscription? ›

Automatic setup via Home Assistant Cloud

Just log in via the user interface and a secure connection with the cloud will be established. Home Assistant Cloud requires a paid subscription after a 30-day free trial.

What is the difference between green and yellow Home Assistant? ›

User Experience vs. Specialized Features: Home Assistant Green prioritizes user experience with a refined user interface and improved navigation. However, Home Assistant Yellow emphasizes specialized features such as energy management and machine learning integration.

Can Home Assistant work without WiFi? ›

Home Assistant doesn't work without a local network that connects everything together. You do not need internet access after Home Assistant is installed, but you do need a local network.

What do I need to start a Home Assistant? ›

TOOLS REQUIRED
  1. Raspberry Pi 3, 4 or 5 with power supply.
  2. MicroSD card.
  3. Ethernet connection.

What is the most secure Home Assistant? ›

If you want secure remote access, the easiest option is to use Home Assistant Cloud by which you also support the founders of Home Assistant. Another option is to use TLS/SSL via the add-on Duck DNS integrating Let's Encrypt. To expose your instance to the internet, use a VPN, or an SSH tunnel.

Can Home Assistant be controlled remotely? ›

To enable remote control

In Home Assistant, go to Settings > Home Assistant Cloud. Make sure you are logged in to Home Assistant Cloud. If you only just logged in for the first time, you might see a message “Remote control is being prepared. We will notify you when it's ready.".

What can I run Home Assistant on? ›

A mini PC or NUC with some sort of virtualization software is an incredible solution for Homeassistant. The hardware does not even need to be particularly modern, a 4th gen intel i5 will be about 3-5 times more powerful than a raspberry Pi and similar power usage since it will idle most of its life.

How long does it take for home assistant to start? ›

Restart currently takes approximately 90 seconds and full cold restart of the box takes approximately 2min. Any VM on a reasonable platform should beat the heck out of that. I'm running HA container in docker on a RPi4 2GB. A HA restart takes about 60 seconds.

Does home assistant need to be always on? ›

The actual brains of home assistant runs as a server and needs a platform that stays powered up on your network all the time, it doesn't even need a display attached to it when it's running.

How much space does home assistant need? ›

Storage: A 32GB card should be sufficient for most users. However, if you plan on storing a lot of data, logs, or add-ons, consider going for a 64GB or even a 128GB card.

Does home assistant work with matter? ›

To allow Home Assistant to control the Matter device that has already been added to another Matter controller, like Google Home, follow these steps: Open the Home Assistant app on your phone. Go to Settings > Devices & services. On the Devices tab, select the Add device button and select Add Matter device.

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