7 extra Home Assistant options I want I’d began utilizing sooner

The variety of options packed into Home Assistant is insane. The drawback is that there are such a lot of options that it may be straightforward to miss a number of the finest ones. I slept on a few of Home Assistant’s options for much too lengthy; listed below are some extra of the very best options that I want I’d began utilizing a lot sooner.

Actionable notifications

Controlling my good house from a notification on my cellphone

I knew about actionable notifications for a very long time earlier than I ever began utilizing them. I want I’d began sooner, as a result of now I exploit them each single day.

A normal notification from Home Assistant pops up in your cellphone to give you some info, and that is so far as it goes. An actionable notification features a set of actions that you would be able to choose immediately from the notification itself to make one thing occur in Home Assistant.

A easy instance can be a notification that tells you that the lounge gentle is on if you go to mattress, with choices to show it off or depart it on. You can then select your possibility and management the sunshine with out having to open up a Home Assistant dashboard or use a voice command. I exploit an advanced sequence of actionable notifications to nag me to take my medication on daily basis.

Bayesian sensors

Multiple alerts and a few math make automations extra dependable

There are a number of clues out of your good house which may let you know somebody is house. The lights could also be on, the TV could also be enjoying a film, a cellphone could also be detected within the house zone, the heating could also be turned up, and so forth. The drawback is that none of these issues assure that somebody is house, so you may’t construct a dependable presence-based automation primarily based on any a type of alerts alone.

A Bayesian sensor lets you mix a number of alerts to calculate the chance of one thing being true. The lights may be on throughout the day quite a bit even when nobody is house, whereas the TV could hardly ever be left on if nobody is there to look at it. A Bayesian sensor makes use of math to take a number of occasions and their likelihoods and work out a chance, such because the chance that somebody is at house, primarily based on these alerts. It could be a way more correct strategy to set off automations.

Combine a number of AV gadgets into one

A wise TV can do quite a bit, however the likelihood is that you’ve further gadgets as a part of your AV setup. Depending on what I’m watching, I could have a set-top field, a streaming stick, a encompass sound system, and extra concerned.

The Universal Media Player integration allows you to mix a number of media player entities right into a single digital media gadget. You can set it up to make use of particular gadgets relying on which of them are in use. For instance, in case your encompass sound system is on, the quantity controls can change the encompass sound receiver quantity, but when the encompass sound is off, the identical controls change the TV quantity as an alternative.

Instead of getting to regulate totally different gadgets independently, the Universal Media Player integration can deal with all of them collectively. It could make sophisticated AV setups far simpler to make use of.

Automation modes

The default conduct is not at all times what you need

By default, Home Assistant automations run as soon as and ignore any new triggers whereas the present run is ongoing. This is just one of 4 potential automation modes, nevertheless.

Restart will cease the prevailing run and begin a brand new one if an automation is triggered once more in the midst of a run. If you set off an automation whereas it is nonetheless working, Queued will wait till the present run has completed after which begin the subsequent run. Parallel will begin a complete run alongside the unique run.

These modes could be actually helpful in several circumstances. For instance, you probably have an automation for motion-activated lighting that makes use of a delay, utilizing Restart will reset the delay timer every time the automation is triggered.

The Proximity integration

Know if somebody is heading house

Using geolocation, Home Assistant can flip off your heating if you’re away, so that you just’re not heating an empty house. The drawback is that in case your heating solely comes again on if you re-enter your Home zone, you might stroll into a chilly home.

The Proximity integration can clear up this drawback. It can decide whether or not you are transferring in direction of or away from your own home primarily based on how your location modifications and might even inform how distant you might be from a selected zone. You can use this info to get your own home to heat up if you’re detected as returning house, however nonetheless far sufficient away that your own home has time to get heat.

Duration-based triggers

I slept on the pretty latest replace

You’ve been in a position to set off an automation primarily based on how lengthy an entity has been in a selected state for a very long time in Home Assistant. For instance, when you wished to ship a notification as soon as a window had been open for greater than half an hour, you can use a state period within the automation that may cease the notification from sending till the set period had elapsed.

These period choices weren’t out there for each set off or situation, nevertheless. In the Home Assistant 2026.5 replace, help for duration-based triggers was added to a number of the helpful purpose-specific triggers. For instance, now you can run an automation when movement hasn’t been detected for 10 minutes utilizing a movement cleared set off with a period of 10 minutes.

Reusable scripts

Don’t reinvent the wheel in each automation

It took me a very long time to understand that I used to be utilizing the identical units of actions in automations again and again. For instance, I might have an motion to ship a notification to my cellphone, and one other one to ship a notification to my spouse’s cellphone, and one other to ship the notification to the TV if it was on, and one other to talk the notification aloud if I used to be in my house workplace, and these similar actions appeared in many various automations.

I lastly acquired round to combining these actions right into a single script. Now for any automation the place I need to ship notifications, I simply run the script with the suitable message handed to it. The better part is that if I get a brand new cellphone, I’ll solely must replace it in a single script as an alternative of getting to manually edit a ton of automations.

There are nonetheless extra nice options to uncover

It amazes me the quantity of stuff that will get added in every new Home Assistant replace. New and higher options are added each month, together with new integrations or updates to current ones. Even when you’ve been utilizing Home Assistant for years, it is value having a look to see which nice options you have been sleeping on.