Software update: Home Assistant 0.94

Version 0.94 Home Assistant was recently released and a small update has already appeared. Home Assistant is an open source home automation platform that runs under Python 3. It runs via Hassbian on a Raspberry Pi 3 or a Linux, macOS or Windows computer. It supports detecting devices such as Nest thermostats, Philips Hue, Belkin WeMo switches, Mr. Coffee makers, the smart switches from IKEA and the mqtt protocol. In addition, where possible, it can control these devices and apply automation. For more information, please refer to this page and our Forum. The release notes for this release can be found below.

0.94: SmartHab, Watson TTS, Azure Event Hub

It is time for the 0.94 release and there is some seriously good stuff in this release. We’re working hard on polishing everything and getting ready for the big Home Assistant 1.0 release. And we’re getting closer. So close actually, that this is the first release that can be installed and configured without touching a text editor! Onboard, configure integrations, manage automations and scripts all from the UI.

This milestone has been achieved thanks to the hard work by @emontnemery who contributed the ability to store the core config in storage: name, location, unit system, time zone. We still allow users to store their core configuration in configuration.yaml, which will take precedent when defined. This means that it is a non-breaking change. Core config is now set during onboarding and can be edited in the general page of the config panel.

Another cool new feature is the total revamp of how you manage which entities are exposed to Google Assistant via Home Assistant Cloud. From the cloud UI you can now click “Manage Entities” and you are brought to the Google Assistant entity manager. From here you can enable which entities are exposed and, if you deem appropriate, choose to disable the two factor authentication on your garage door (the asking for a pin).

Discovery

Discovery has been modernized thanks to @Kane610 and with the input from @Jc2k. Each integration is now able to specify how they can be discovered in their manifest, and the new zeroconf and ssdp integrations will do the rest. The new discovery is non-obtrusive: no devices are set up without approval by the user. Instead, you will need to approve each discovered integration. You can find them in the discovered section of the integrations page in the config. Only a handful of integrations have been migrated to the new approach in this release: Hue, LIFX, Deconz, Trådfri, Axis, ESPHome, HomeKit Controller.

The new discovery is now part of the default config. If you are not using the default config, add ssdp: and zeroconf: to your configuration.yaml.

Deprecating Python 3.5 support

This release has deprecated support for the almost 4 year old version 3.5 of Python. The first Home Assistant release after August 1 will drop support. This is part of our newly adopted Python support approach.

This will only impact you if you are running a custom installation of Home Assistant. This will not impact anyone using Hass.io or Docker. If you are using hassbian, you can upgrade Python by following these instructions.

Modernizing the device tracker

This release also introduces a long overdue overhaul of how the device tracker works. We are introducing this overhaul piece by piece, focusing first on device tracker platforms that push their updates to Home Assistant: mobile app, OwnTracks, GeoFency, GPSLogger and Locative.

These integrations will no longer use known_devices.yaml but instead use entities, like all other integrations in Home Assistant. You can change the name and entity ID via the UI. It is no longer possible to merge the devices with other device tracker entities. This was flaky at best. You should now use the new person integration for this.

Improved hass.io builds

We have been working hard on improving Hass.io builds. It’s our goal to make the update process faster and more predictable. A build can now be online in as little as 30 minutes after a new release has been tagged. This is thanks to a new wheel-based infrastructure build by @pvizeli with input from @french. With Python wheels, we will build all the requirements of integrations ahead of time, and so a new version of Home Assistant is now just putting pieces together.

Because of this, we changed how packages are installed when running Home Assistant inside a Docker container. It will now install the packages into the Python environment inside the container, instead of storing them in the config/deps folder, which lived outside the container.

Note: Because of the new way packages are installed, Home Assistant on Hass.io will take longer to start the first time it is launched after an upgrade. Don’t worry and let it finish! We are working on making this process faster in the future.

Note 2: If you are using Hass.io or a dockerized version of Home Assistant, this release will one time clear the deps folder in your config folder.

New Integrations

• Adding Watson TTS (IBM Cloud) (@rutkai – #23299) (watson_tts docs) (new integration)
• MCP23017 (@jardiamj – #23127) (mcp23017 docs) (new integration)
• Solax Inverter Sensor Component (@squishykid – #22579) (solax docs) (new integration)
• Add Remote RPi Component (@jgriff2 – #23518) (remote_rpi_gpio docs) (new integration)
• Azure Event Hub history component (@eavanvalkenburg – #23878) (azure_event_hub docs) (new integration)
• Add SSDP integration(@balloob – #24090) (default_config docs) (discovery docs) (hue docs) (ssdp docs) (zeroconf docs) (new integration)
• Add Repetier-Server Component (@MTrab – #21658) (rehearsal docs) (new integration)

New Platforms

• Add LCN climate platform (@alengwenus – #22542) (lcn docs) (new platform)
• Add incomfort climate and bump client (@zxdavb – #23830) (incomfort docs) (new platform)
• Add new SmartHab light and cover platform (@outadoc – #21225) (smarthab docs) (new platform)
• Add geniushub sensor and binary_sensor (@zxdavb – #23811) (geniushub docs) (new platform)
• Mobile app to use device tracker config entry (@balloob – #24238) (mobile_app docs) (beta fix) (new platform)

Release 0.94.1 – June 7

• Add a discovery config flow to Wemo (@balloob – #24208) (discovery docs) (wemo docs)
• Initiate web session inside event loop (@balloob – #24331) (tado docs)
• bump dependency (@Kane610 – #24376) (axis docs)
• Updated pubnubsub handler to 1.0.7 to fix crash on slow startup (@w1ll1am23 – #24388) (wink docs)
• Fix automation failing to restore state (@balloob – #24390) (automation docs)
• Add more HomeKit models for discovery (@balloob – #24391) (homekit_controller docs) (hue docs) (tradfri docs) (wemo docs)
• Check cloud trusted proxies (@balloob – #24395) (cloud docs) (http docs)
• Fix for sun issues (@Swamp-Ig – #24309) (sun docs)
• deCONZ – properly identify configured bridge (@Kane610 – #24378) (deconz docs)