Top story for Thursday, October 22, 2026

Home Assistant raises its frontend minimums to Chrome 67, Safari and iOS 15.4, and Firefox 98. Browsers below those versions receive an explanation on the launch screen instead of remaining there indefinitely.

ESPHome’s October release guidance tells owners of Sendspin speakers to update Music Assistant first. The encrypted protocol used by ESPHome 2026.10 requires Music Assistant 2.10.7 or 2.11.0b4 and newer; an older server will not connect to the updated device.

Home Assistant lets blueprint authors show only the inputs relevant to the choices someone has made. A fixed-brightness option, for example, can reveal its brightness field while other modes keep it out of the way. Whole sections can follow the same rule.

Home Assistant’s installer adds an optional Wi-Fi step after choosing the destination drive. Raspberry Pi 3, 4 and 5, Yellow with CM5, and generic x86-64 and aarch64 computers can receive their network name and password as the image is written.

Matter.js Server corrects a migration failure that left devices unavailable with empty readings after moving from the Python Matter Server. Version 1.5.0 could create a new controller identity instead of using the identity the devices already trusted.

Home Assistant lets Forecast.Solar follow panels on a camper, caravan or other moving installation. The forecast can follow Home Assistant’s home location and take panel direction and tilt from sensors instead of requiring the integration to be removed and added again after moving.

Home Assistant adds calendar groups that combine several calendars into one read-only calendar. Work, school and family events can share a single entity, configured through the interface with a preview or through YAML.

ESPHome adds a way for makers to run a small C program on an ESP32’s low-power coprocessor while the main processor is in deep sleep. The program can run on a timer, share values with ESPHome and wake the main processor without losing its state.

Home Assistant marks a set of UniFi Protect setup controls and health readings for removal in 2027.1. The integration is moving away from the private interface that supplies them, and UniFi’s official interface does not provide replacements.

Music Assistant’s AirPlay tool raises the limit of its shared timing service from eight receivers to 64. Groups of nine or more AirPlay 2 receivers could previously fail to start, while cycling through eight distinct receivers could leave later ones without the timing messages needed to play.

ESPHome adds a relative-humidity correction for sensors warmed by the electronics around them. Correcting the temperature alone leaves the humidity reading wrong, because relative humidity changes with temperature rather than by a fixed percentage offset.

Sendspin’s protocol specification requires devices to reject audio and volume commands for playback roles they have not approved. Previously, the rules told a server not to send those messages without also requiring the receiver to ignore them.