Home Assistant Podcast

Infrared is cool again with Home Assistant 2026.4

Home Assistant Podcast

Show Notes

Home Assistant 2026.4 is here! We break down Infrared as a first‑class feature with IR proxies, expanded purpose‑specific triggers, dashboard background colors, favorites for lights/covers, Matter lock credential management, and more. We also cover a critical HA OS/Supervisor security patch you should apply now.

Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA228

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Chapters 00:00:00 Intro, sponsors, housekeeping 00:02:30 2026.4 overview and event 00:05:00 Security alert and patch tips 00:07:30 New Works With partner: HeatIt 00:10:00 Feedback: Frigate and Litter‑Robot 00:12:30 Thread/Matter experiences and FP300 00:15:00 Local LLMs and home agents 00:17:30 Cat litter → RoboRock cleanup 00:20:00 Entity naming change delayed 00:23:00 Infrared goes first‑class 00:26:00 IR proxies now, RF coming 00:28:30 Purpose‑specific triggers expand 00:31:00 Dashboard background colors 00:33:30 Favorites for lights and covers 00:36:00 Matter lock credentials, locks 00:38:30 Robots: Roborock Q10, SmartThings 00:41:00 Jellyfin and Proxmox updates 00:43:30 Voice cleaning, backup progress 00:46:00 Markdown actions, LG IR nuances 00:48:30 New integrations roundup 00:51:00 E‑ink, energy, access, breaking changes

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers. For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Smart Home Products Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi Website Smart Home Products Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee

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