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Home Assistant 2025.5

This release brings improvements to the backup system with advanced retention policies, new voice variants for Text-to-Speech, improved selection dialogs with more context, and support for Z-Wave Long Range. A milestone is being celebrated - 2 million active installations worldwide!

Main Features​

Backup System - Another Iteration​

  • Per-location retention policies - Different limits per location
  • Backup before OS upgrade - Create backup before upgrading
  • Default backup preferences - Set whether to always backup before update
  • Wait for backup completion - System waits for backup before restart
  • Enhanced backup reliability

Text-to-Speech Voice Variants for Cloud​

  • New voice styles - "friendly", "angry", "sad", "whisper"
  • Context-aware notifications - Match mood to situation
  • 30 voices, 24 languages - Wide selection
  • Cloud subscribers only - Premium feature
  • More expressive voice notifications

Improved Entity Pickers​

  • More context - Show device and area with entity
  • Better search - Smarter search algorithm
  • Optional ID display - Hide entity IDs in profile settings
  • Consistent design - Applied to area, device, label, user pickers
  • Enhanced selection experience

Z-Wave Long Range and Smart Start​

  • Z-Wave Long Range support - Much longer communication range
  • Enhanced Smart Start - QR scanning in mobile apps
  • Flexible connection - Connect to Long Range or mesh network
  • Better onboarding - Easier device addition
  • Next generation Z-Wave

New Integrations​

The following new integrations are added in this release:

  • AWS S3 - Backups to Amazon S3
  • Imeon Inverter - Battery and solar production monitoring
  • Miele - Control Miele home appliances
  • ntfy - Notifications via ntfy.sh service
  • Rehlko - Kohler generator monitoring

Virtual Integrations​

  • Balay, Constructa, Gaggenau, Neff, Pitsos, Profilo, Siemens (Home Connect)
  • Google Gemini (Google Generative AI)
  • Maytag (Whirlpool)
  • National Grid US (Opower)
  • Thermador (Home Connect)

Notable Improvements to Existing Integrations​

It's not just new integrations that have been added; existing integrations are also constantly being improved.

OpenAI Conversation​

  • PDF support - Process PDF files in generate_content action
  • Document summarization - Summarize PDF reports
  • Enhanced AI capabilities

HomeKit Bridge​

  • Air purifiers - Support for air purifier devices
  • Extended HomeKit compatibility

YouTube Integration​

  • Channel monitoring - Track your own YouTube channel
  • Video and subscriber stats

HEOS​

  • Queue management - Add items to playback queue
  • Remove from queue - Delete queue items
  • Better playlist control

Mill​

  • Energy statistics - Power consumption tracking
  • Monitor heating costs

Xiaomi BLE​

  • Body Composition Scale S400 - Support for new scale
  • Extended device support

SwitchBot​

  • Roller Shade - Window shade support
  • HubMini Matter - Matter hub support
  • Growing device ecosystem

Synology DSM​

  • External USB drives - Support for USB storage
  • Extended storage monitoring

La Marzocco​

  • Additional sensors - More statistics entities
  • Better coffee machine monitoring

Quality Scale Achievements​

  • Platinum: Ohme, Vodafone Station, ESPHome, Enphase Envoy
  • Silver: IMGW-PIB, SMLIGHT
  • Bronze: Whirlpool, UptimeRobot

Other Notable Changes​

Keyboard Shortcuts​

  • Press ? - Show all keyboard shortcuts
  • Faster navigation - Keyboard power users
  • Accessibility - Better keyboard navigation
  • Enhanced productivity

Matter 1.4​

  • Water heater support - New device type
  • Extended compatibility - More Matter devices
  • Growing Matter ecosystem

Device Naming During Setup​

  • Name on setup - Set device name immediately
  • Better workflow - One less step later
  • Improved onboarding
  • New media_player.search_media action - Search for media
  • Integration support - Works with compatible players
  • Enhanced media control

New Template Functions​

  • device_name - Get device name in templates
  • Enhanced floor_id and area_id - Better functionality
  • More template power

Trigger-Based Template Entities​

  • Switches and lights - Trigger-based templates
  • Event-driven - Update on events
  • More flexible templates

Modern YAML Syntax​

  • Cover templates - New YAML format
  • Cleaner syntax - Easier to read
  • Better validation - Catch errors earlier
  • Improved template development

Container Mode Detection​

  • Warning notification - Alert when running without host networking
  • Better diagnostics - Understand networking issues
  • Improved Docker experience

Dashboard Updates​

Badge Behavior​

  • Wrap or scroll - Configure badge behavior
  • Mobile optimization - Better on small screens
  • Flexible dashboard layout

Automation and Scripts​

Better Template UI Experience​

  • UI stays available - Even with templates
  • Code editor fallback - Only for template fields
  • Better workflow - Advanced user friendly
  • Improved editing experience

YAML Paste to UI​

  • Paste YAML directly - Into automation editor
  • Automatic conversion - Converts to UI format
  • Works for parts - Paste sections or whole automations
  • Faster automation creation

Network Discovery​

  • New browsers - DHCP, mDNS/ZeroConf, UPnP/SSDP
  • Technical insights - View discovery process
  • Settings > System > Network - Available in settings
  • Better troubleshooting

Release Party Video​

More Information​

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