2026.5: We're on the same frequency now 📡

Home Assistant 2026.5! 🎉 What a few weeks it has been! Earlier this month, we hosted State of the Open Home 2026 live in Utrecht, the Netherlands. A big chunk of that day was dedicated to something we deeply care about: building in the open, and how we’re going to take that even further from here on out. 💙 Building in the open isn’t just about source code on GitHub. It’s about doing the planning, the decision-making, and the prioritizing out where everyone can see it, follow along, and join in. And “joining in” doesn’t mean you have to write a single line of code or even consider yourself technical. Sharing how you use Home Assistant, telling us what frustrates you, what you wish existed, voting on ideas, helping a fellow user on the forums or Discord, translating, writing documentation, or simply leaving a thoughtful comment on a roadmap item: it all counts, and it all shapes where this project goes next. 🤝 A great first step in that direction also went live this month: our roadmap is now public. You can go browse it, see what we’re working on, what’s next, and (most importantly) comment on it, share your thoughts, and help shape it. We talked about all of this, and a lot more, on stage. So if you weren’t able to join us live, please go watch the recording. It is genuinely worth your time, and it’s the best invitation I can give you to come build the Open Home with us. 🗺️ Now, on to this release. My personal favorite this month is maybe a bit unexpected, considering it sits all the way at the end of this post: the completely reworked templating documentation. I know, I know, “documentation” doesn’t exactly scream headline feature. But hear me out: making Home Assistant more approachable is one of our biggest missions this year, and darn good documentation is a big part of that. We’ve expanded our documentation team and are investing heavily in this, and the new templating docs are the very first taste of what’s to come. I’m really proud of where this is heading. 📚 That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t also super stoked about radio frequency (RF) support landing this release. Just like last month’s infrared (IR) release, this brings a massive category of devices into Home Assistant natively: blinds, garage doors, ceiling fans, RF outlets, doorbells… you name it. Sure, there have always been clever workarounds and custom integrations to bridge some of these, but having it built right into the platform changes the game completely. There is so much cool stuff going on around this, and we’re only getting started. 📡 And there’s plenty more: a new Maintenance dashboard for your batteries, serial ports proxied over the network with ESPHome, new tile card features for media players, durations for purpose-specific automation triggers and conditions, redesigned more-info dialogs for vacuums and lawn mowers, autocomplete in the code editors, and 12 new integrations! 🚀 Enjoy the release! ../Frenck Radio frequency joins infrared as a first-class citizen Meet the Radio frequency platform Why this is a big deal A sneak peek at what’s coming Serial ports over the network with ESPHome Where this comes in handy Under the hood A first step, not the finish line More from your built-in dashboards Stay on top of your batteries with the new Maintenance dashboard Activity log on the Security dashboard More for the dashboards you build yourself Introducing the shortcut card New tile card features for media players Purpose-specific automation triggers & conditions Automations that finally understand “for a while” A few more triggers and conditions to play with Changes to existing triggers and conditions Try it out! Integrations New integrations Noteworthy improvements to existing integrations Integration quality scale achievements Now available to set up from the UI Farewell to the following Other noteworthy changes A modern more-info dialog for vacuums and lawn mowers New styling for toggles The templating documentation you’ve always wanted Smarter code editors with autocomplete Need help? Join the community Backward-incompatible changes Patch releases 2026.5.1 - May 8 2026.5.2 - May 15 2026.5.3 - May 19 2026.5.4 - May 22 All changes A huge thank you to all the contributors who made this release possible! And a special shout-out to @piitaya who helped write the release notes this release. Also, @RaHehl, @balloob, @Tommatheussen, and @mib1185 for putting effort into improving its contents. Thanks to them, these release notes are in great shape. ❤️ Radio frequency joins infrared as a first-class citizen Last release, we welcomed infrared as a first-class citizen of Home Assistant, opening the door to all those TVs, air conditioners, and other appliances still controlled by their little IR remote. This release continues that story with another old-school protocol: radio frequency (RF). 📡 Think about all the RF-controlled devices already living in your home: motorized blinds and curtains, garage door openers, ceili

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