The little smart home platform

You lay the groundwork for creating a larger, more sustainable smart home platform that adheres to the same open-source, open-standard principles as your well-known one. That’s the strategy that Paulus Schoutsen, the creator of Home Assistant, has chosen, anyway.

Home Assistant revealed this week that it has joined the Open Home Foundation. The recently established nonprofit organization will control and own all of Home Assistant and its affiliated companies. Schoutsen, Guy Sie, Pascal Vizeli, and J. were its founders and original board members. Nick Koston is the only employee of the foundation who works on Home Assistant; there are currently no other members.

“To fight against surveillance capitalism, and offer a counterbalance to Big Tech influence, in the smart home — by focusing on privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart home users,” the foundation said in a press release. “.

Home Assistant is an open-source smart home platform that is built by the community. Unlike its major “big tech” competitors, like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, it offers four key features at once: control over and access to all of your data; compatibility with nearly every connected device, regardless of manufacturer or protocol; authority over and control over your home, which can be faster and more dependable than the cloud; and the ability to make them work together. Some of these are provided by numerous competitors, but not all of them.

We’re motivated by something more important than money, and I want the world to know that. and that there is no need to buy us. “.

Although there are an estimated one million users on Home Assistant, the platform has not yet succeeded in breaking through to the general public, despite being known for its unparalleled power and flexibility. When compared to the comparatively easy-to-use interface of a platform such as Apple Home or Alexa, Home Assistant can have a steep learning curve. Device onboarding can be challenging, there’s always space for improvement in the user interface, and integrations aren’t always successful.

Schoutsen asserts that “Home Assistant is not the first smart home platform.”. “People turn to Home Assistant when they outgrow their current systems and want more sophisticated control. However, he perceives that the platform is about to reach a critical mass.

The mainstream adoption of smart home technology is being driven by the introduction of the industry-backed Matter smart home standard, in which Home Assistant plays a major role. After about ten years of competition in the smart home space from companies like Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and Google, Home Assistant wants to stay afloat. According to Schoutsen, Home Assistant has never taken investors and that building a foundation is the best strategy for expansion.

On Saturday, April 20, Schoutsen gave an overview of the platform’s future roadmap during its yearly State of the Open Home presentation. Prior to the live broadcast, he spoke with The Verge about some of the more significant adjustments that Home Assistant would be undergoing after this move.

This year marks the first time the company will sell straight to customers when the Home Assistant Green smart home hub goes on sale on Amazon. There will be a new series of Home Assistant Connect dongles available for Z-Wave and Thread/Zigbee. These will replace the SkyConnect dongle and link the hub to devices that support those protocols.

The Home Assistant Works With initiative is growing, providing certification for compatible products. Jasco, Ultraloq, and Aqara are among the new partners.

By year’s end, a new hardware device for Home Assistant voice control that runs the local smart home voice assistant will be available.

To integrate a local AI model into the home automation platform, Home Assistant and Nvidia are collaborating.

In order to make Home Assistant more user-friendly for all household members, the platform has been investigating methods to enhance its user interface. This is referred to as the “Home-approval factor,” which is a home-wide version of the wife- or spouse-approval factor.

To learn more about these, see the sidebar. ( ).

More about Home Assistant’s upcoming developments.

Additional Collaborations.

Since its 2022 launch, the Home Assistant Works With Program has grown to include more smart home manufacturers as partners and to certify their products as guaranteed to work with Home Assistant. Aqara, Third Reality, Jasco, Leviton, and Ultraloq are a few of the partners. According to Schoutsen, “the label means we can guarantee it works with Home Assistant.”. There won’t be any cloud-only partners, and each features the kind of connection it supports. As a backup badge, we only permit the use of cloud badges in addition to local badges. If the cloud is turned off one day, we cannot guarantee that [products that rely solely on it] will continue to function. “.

extra hardware for voice control.

In addition to developing a hardware device for Home Assistant, work on a voice assistant that is local to the user, started last year, is still ongoing. “Our goal is to produce hardware that individuals can install in their homes and use in place of Google and Amazon,” states Schoutsen. He makes a hint about a future screen-based device when he states that the device should arrive by the end of this year. “We are examining screens; we have nothing official to report, but we are examining E-ink.”. Just as we don’t need advertisements, we also don’t need color. “.

Extra AI.

Most importantly, Home Assistant is investigating the use of local processing in conjunction with generative AI for home automation. “ChatGPT with Home Assistant is being used by some, but it’s really slow,” Schoutsen claims. To use Nvidia’s Jetson platform to power LLMs for Home Assistant, they are collaborating with them.

All of these initiatives are aimed at making Home Assistant a more widely available, off-the-shelf choice for owners of smart homes. According to Schoutsen, “We want to be a consumer brand.”. “It should be possible for you to enter a Home Depot and decide, ‘I need this smart home hub because I care about my privacy,'”. “”.

According to Schoutsen, the foundation will also push for the creation of “better” smart home products—that is, gadgets with locally accessible APIs and environmentally friendly construction. Because reliable products that are compatible with Home Assistant are necessary. “.

Has Home Assistant reached adulthood now?

The foundation is essential to safeguarding and advancing Home Assistant, according to Schoutsen, who launched the app in 2013 with a Python script, a Philips Hue smart lighting bridge, and the goal of controlling his lights however he pleased. We have a higher purpose than money, and I want the world to know that. Additionally, that we are not up for grabs,” he declares. A more robust growth platform is offered by the new ownership structure. According to him, “it gives us a way for people to take us seriously and to help us reach a bigger audience.”.

According to Schoutsen, businesses wishing to collaborate with the platform have found it difficult to understand how Home Assistant functions due to its informal nature. With the introduction of the for-profit Nabu Casa five years ago, Home Assistant was able to generate income through an add-on cloud computing service that is currently employed by 33 full-time staff members.

Officially separating Nabu Casa from Home Assistant, the foundation was established last month in Switzerland as a Verein (“association”). Together with ESPHome, ZigPy, and Wyoming, the foundation will be the owner of all open-source projects, standards, drivers, and libraries related to Home Assistant.

As a business partner of the foundation, Nabu Casa will carry on as a for-profit company that sells hardware for Home Assistants and runs the cloud. Nabu Casa co-founder and foundation board member Pascal Vizeli states, “Funding and support can only flow one way—from Nabu Casa, and any future partners, to the Open Home Foundation and its projects.”.

Additionally, it keeps Home Assistant from being sold. Schoutsen told The Verge that Swiss law forbids members of a non-profit Verein from profiting from it. “There will be no direct distribution to members in exchange for services rendered to the association or as any other form of gratuity in any kind,” he says, citing our articles. In a similar vein, he asserts that the foundation’s only sources of funding are contributions from partners, license programs, membership fees, and donations.

However, users of Home Assistant might be cautious about these more significant structural adjustments. Schoutsen was questioned by The Verge about how he could allay concerns that this will have a negative effect on present users. One cannot help but compare this to SmartThings’ transition to a more “consumer-friendly” platform after being acquired by Samsung.

He remarked, “I don’t know how we are going to keep balancing this between ease of use and advanced features. We’re constantly doing this.”. However, we must not overlook our power users. I’m not sure how that will work, but the platform is open and may eventually split into an advanced and basic user interface. In spite of the fact that they may not utilize the particular tools we are developing, they are all a part of the community because we are transparent and our data is easily available. “.

“We don’t reach the larger audience that I would like to today. “.

Despite understanding that it is essential to expand Home Assistant, he is also hesitant to dive into the business side of smart homes. He says, “We have to move into this space very carefully.”. People who are very business-focused present a challenge when it comes to partnerships. It isn’t how we work, either. “.

He anticipates that the foundation will safeguard the fundamental principles and ideals of the platform while offering the building blocks required for expansion. With this stepping stone in place, I believe we can grow even more. It is true that the foundation exists. We will be given more credence by others. I anticipate that the media will give us more credence. My aim is to connect with a larger audience than we currently do. “.

The majority of smart home platforms available today provide easy-to-use interfaces for controlling smart lights, locks, and other devices; however, certain platforms over-rely on the cloud, do not give you full control over your devices locally, and do not give you access to your data.

Matter is intended to address some of these issues by bringing local control and interoperability to all smart home platforms and devices. But Matter isn’t a platform; to control your house, you’ll still need to use a computer or phone app. That app is what Home Assistant aspires to be.

There is a long way to go before building a foundation and stocking Home Depots with devices that promise Home Assistant allegiance and hubs. Will it move quickly enough? Aqara, Homey, and Hubitat are just a few of the platforms that Matter is giving the resources to develop into more competitive alternatives to big tech in the smart home. It will be interesting to watch how everything turns out.