Home Assistant 2022.9 Release Highlights

Home Assistant 2022.9 Release Highlights

It's that time of the month again. The time when the hard-working Home Assistant developers release the latest update of Home Assistant. The team at Home Assistant/Nabu Casa do a good job of pointing out all the new, shiny things in their release party, which you can watch on Youtube. I'm going to point out my favorite highlights of the release.


New Automation Interface

The biggest thing you'll notice is the lack of things on the automation page. They have now been collapsed into easy sections.

New minimal automations creation page

When you have created an automation, it is easy to see what it is doing in each section. This is a great way to get a quick overview of what the automation is all about.

Easily readable descriptions of each section of the automation

All the extra stuff that used to be on the page is now pushed out of the way to the overflow menu.

Automation overflow menu

In my video, I compare the old interface and the new interface so make sure you take a look.


Weekly Schedule Helper

There is a handy new helper that has been added that allows you to set recurring schedules based on day of week and time of day. The UI is draggable so all you have to do is click and drag a region to fill it out. You can move things around with drag and drop ease.

Weekly Schedule Helper

You can create automations that run when the helper is active, etc. It is a very handy addition for those recurring items you want to automate, such as making sure the trash is out every week.


So Much Bluetooth!

This release adds to the work done on making Bluetooth even more awesome. Introduced is the concept of Bluetooth Proxies. With proxies, you can extend your bluetooth coverage far beyond the range currently possible with your Home Assistant device. Let's face it, many of us tuck those things away in the back closet and this makes using bluetooth difficult. No more! I'll be covering these proxies in a later post and video so make sure you subscribe to updates here and on my youtube channel.

As of this writing, you can install the bluetooth proxy on these devices as noted on the ESPHome Bluetooth Proxy page.

Bluetooth proxy capable devices (as of this writing).

In addition to the proxies, Home Assistant added support for the new open BTHome standard that allows collectiong of sensor data on devices with batteries lasting up to a year.


Z-Wave Firmware Updates

In this release, the ability to update Z-Wave devices directly from Home Assistant now exists. Z-Wave JS can now automatically detect, download, and install a firmware update if it is available for your device. The caveat is that manufacturers have to get on board. Jasco is the first of hopefully many manufacturers that take advantage of this new feature.

Sample Z-Wave automatic update (image credit homeassistant.io)

There is much more to the update, including breaking changes! Make sure you watch the video for more details and the before and after automation UI demo.