Home Assistant Core 2023.5: Let’s talk!

Home Assistant Core 2023.5 has been released, and it is packed with exciting new features, especially in the area of voice control. This release marks a significant step forward in making Home Assistant more accessible and user-friendly. Let’s dive into the highlights of this release:

Let’s talk!

Home Assistant’s goal for 2023 is to allow users to control their smart homes using their own language. This release brings us closer to that goal by introducing several voice-related features:

• Compose your own voice assistant using the new assist pipelines
• Voice Assistant powered by Home Assistant Cloud
• Fully local text-to-speech using Piper
• Fully local speech-to-text using OpenAI Whisper
• The Wyoming protocol and integration
• Create your own ESPHome-powered voice assistant
• The Voice-over-IP integration, call Home Assistant

These features give users the flexibility to choose their preferred voice assistant and customize it to their needs. The documentation provides detailed tutorials and guides to help users get started with building their own voice assistants.

Manage what is exposed to your voice assistants

A new menu item called “Voice assistants” has been added to the Settings menu. This menu allows users to manage which entities are exposed to their voice assistants, such as Assist, Alexa, and Google Assistant. Users can easily add or remove entities and configure their aliases. This feature provides users with more control over what their voice assistants can access.

Improved entity setting

The entity settings dialog has been improved to make it easier to use. The advanced section has been reorganized, and a new “Voice assistants” option has been added. This option allows users to quickly change the voice assistants that an entity is exposed to, including its aliases. This enhancement simplifies the process of managing entity settings and makes it more intuitive for users.

Configuring the LEDs of your Home Assistant Yellow

The Home Assistant Yellow device now allows users to configure the LEDs on the board. This feature is useful for users who have the device in their bedroom and want to avoid unwanted light when it is dark. Users can now turn on/off the disk, heartbeat, and power LEDs using the Configure button on the Settings > Hardware page.

Webhooks trigger options

Webhooks have been extended in this release. Users can now use webhooks that use the GET HTTP method. Additionally, new security features have been added to webhook triggers, allowing users to set which HTTP methods their webhook trigger works with and limit webhooks to only work on their local network. These enhancements improve the flexibility and security of webhooks in Home Assistant.

New Assist pipeline and language selectors

Users building automation or scripts Blueprints can now leverage two new UI selectors: an Assist pipeline selector and a language selector. The language selector allows users to choose from a list of languages, which can be useful for setting different languages for text-to-speech notifications. These selectors enhance the customization options available to users when creating Blueprints.

Other noteworthy changes

In addition to the highlighted features, this release includes several other noteworthy changes:

• Home Assistant Operating System v10 has been released, with support for the ODROID M-1 and improvements in data disk support and memory management.
• Matter now has support for covers.
• Making backups is now faster.
• The ONVIF integration has been improved for better stability.
• Multiple instances of the OpenAI Conversation integration can now be set up with different prompts.
• Direction support has been added to MQTT fans.
• BTHome now supports button and dimmer events, including the Shelly BLU Button1.
• The Supervisor can now create repair issues for system issues.
• Sorting of the Shopping list is now possible.
• Person entities now have an attribute that lists the device trackers for that person.
• The NextDNS integration has added new parental control switches.
• Synology DSM can now browse Synology Photos in the media browser.
• Simplepush now supports attachments.
• Z-Wave notification sensors can now be idled manually using new notification idle buttons.

New Integrations

This release introduces several new integrations:

• Android TV Remote: Launch apps and control your Android TV device.
• RAPT Bluetooth: Integrates RAPT Pill hydrometers into Home Assistant.
• Voice over IP: Talk to Assist using an analog phone and a VoIP adapter.
• Wyoming: Connect to voice services supporting the Wyoming protocol.
• Roborock: Control your RoboRock vacuum with Roborock app support.
• Anova: Control Anova sous vides with Wi-Fi capabilities.

In addition to these new integrations, there is also a new virtual integration called Monessen provided by Intellifire.

Integrations now available to set up from the UI

The following integrations can now be set up directly from the Home Assistant UI:

• Brottsplatskartan
• qBittorrent
• Snapcast
• Workday

Release 2023.5.1 – May 4

This release includes several bug fixes and updates to integrations and dependencies.

Release 2023.5.2 – May 5

This release includes bug fixes and improvements to integrations and dependencies.

Release 2023.5.3 – May 14

This release includes bug fixes and updates to integrations and dependencies.

Release 2023.5.4 – May 23

This release includes bug fixes and updates to integrations and dependencies.

Need help? Join the community!

If you need assistance or have any questions, the Home Assistant community is here to help. You can join the Discord chat server or visit the forums to connect with other users and get support. If you prefer email, you can sign up for the Building the Open Home Newsletter to receive the latest news and updates straight to your inbox.

Breaking Changes

As with any major release, there are some breaking changes to be aware of. These changes include updates to integrations, renaming of the “Android TV” integration to “Android Debug Bridge”, removal of unused YAML configuration options, and more. It is recommended to review the full list of breaking changes in the release notes to ensure a smooth transition.

Home Assistant Core 2023.5 brings exciting new voice control features and improvements to existing integrations. Whether you’re a new user or a seasoned Home Assistant enthusiast, this release offers something for everyone. Upgrade to the latest version and start exploring the possibilities of voice control in your smart home!

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