Home Assistant

Home Assistant is free and open-source home automation software designed to be the central home automation control system for smart home technology. Both the Home Assistant "core" application itself and its software extensions are written in Python. Its main focus is on local control and privacy.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Home Assistant
Original author(s)Paulus Schoutsen
Developer(s)Home Assistant Core Team and Community
Initial release17 September 2013 (2013-09-17)
Stable release
2021.1.0 [1] / 6 January 2021 (2021-01-06)
Repositorygithub.com/home-assistant
Written inPython (Python 3.8)
Operating systemSoftware appliance / Virtual appliance (Linux)
PlatformARM, ARM64, IA-32 (x86), and x64 (x86-64)
TypeHome automation, Smart home technology, internet of things, task automator
LicenseApache License (free and open-source)
Websitewww.home-assistant.io

It features support for very wide range of home automation devices and system integrations. As of November 2020 it ships with over 1700 modular plug-ins or add-ons for different IoT technologies, systems and services, available as "integration components" - part of the official Home Assistant "core" application software.[9] There are also many more additional integrations and custom components that are not part of the official Home Assistant "core", which can just as easily be installed via "HACS" ("Home Assistant Community Store").

Actions for devices and entities, such as locally or remotely controlled lighting, climate, entertainment systems and appliances, can be triggered by automations and scripts, voice commands, mobile apps, or controlled via the Home Assistant web-based user-interface (front-end).[10][11][12][13][14]

The Home Assistant project was started in September 2013. In November 2013, the core project was first published publicly on GitHub. As of December 2020, it has over 2275 developers who have contributed to its core.[15][16][17][18] The project has free and open source companion apps for both Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad).[19][20]

At the GitHub "State of the Octoverse" 2020 Home Assistant was listed in second place in the Top 10 list of Python packages with most active contributors (with 8,162 unique contributors during 2020). Similarly, the 2019 "State of the Octoverse" listed Home Assistant as the tenth biggest open source project on GitHub, based on the number of active contributors that year (the project had contributions from 63,000+ contributors during 2019).[21][22][23]

Features

Home Assistant acts as a central smart home controller hub which features all common conditional statement creator functions that you would expect from a modern home automation platform to control simple smart home technology, including gateway and bridge (protocol converter) for devices and services using different IoT technologies, advanced building automation, alarm management of security alarms and video surveillance for home security systems, and monitoring of energy measuring devices (home energy monitors as well as central smart meters) and other sensors.[24][25][26] It provides action and scripts rule-based systems for creating automations, with time and event condition handling, scheduling tasks, notifications and voice control, as well as functions for direct and on-demand actions.[27][28][29][30]

It is deployed as an on-premises software and can connect directly or indirectly to IoT (Internet of Things) local devices, local control hubs/gateways/bridges, or cloud services from many different vendors, including other open and closed smart home ecosystems. It features modular system integration system with "integration components" (plug-ins or add-ons) for most popular devices, services, and IoT ecosystems, such as; Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Bluetooth, ecobee, ESP8266 (with firmware such as ESPHome and Tasmota), Google Assistant, Google Cast (Google Chromecast), Google Home, Google Nest, IFTTT, IKEA Smart Home (Trådfri), KNX, Xiaomi Smart Home (Mi Home), MQTT, Philips Hue, SmartThings (Samsung), Shelly, Sonoff (eWeLink, official DIY-mode, and third-party firmware), Sonos, Tuya Smart, X10, Zigbee, Z-Wave, several smart locks from Yale/August and others, and many other third-party system integrations.[9][31][32][33][34][35]

Installation

"Home Assistant Core" is a Python program that can be deployed on servers running various operating systems, and "Home Assistant OS" (formerly known as "Hassio") is the official software appliance / virtual appliance installation package that combines the Home Assistant Core, a just enough operating system, and various tools and dependecies used to maintain that platform, including the "Home Assistant Supervisor". The later setup allows one to run it easily on a single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi, a virtual machine on a hypervisor (available in many modern network-attached storage systems), and other hardware platforms without setting up an operating system first. It has a management user interface that can be used from the Home Assistant frontend, that interface is otherwise not present in a Home Assistant Core only setup.[36][37][28][38]

Discovery and configuration

After installation, Home Assistant scans your home network and discovers devices that can be included in the smart home solution. Users can provide credentials and device names via an administration user interface.[39][40][41][12]

Security

Home Assistant's on-premises software nature and local control focus for the purpose of privacy, plus the fact that it is an open source application, have been described as beneficial to the security of the platform, specifically when compared to closed home automation systems based on proprietary hardware and cloud-services services.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Reception

Home Assistant took second place in 2017[42] and 2018[43] for the Thomas Krenn Award (formerly Open Source Grant), later winning first place in 2019.[44] Home Assistant also won an DINACon award in 2018 for their "Open Internet Award" category.,[45][46] as well as being a nominee for the same awards in 2013[47]

Home Assistant was also included in a number of product and platform comparisons, where, like many other non-commercial home automation controllers/hubs, it has often in the past been criticized for forcing users into a tedious file-based setup procedure using text-based YAML markup-language instead of graphical user interfaces.[48][49][50][51][52][53][28][54] However, newer versions of Home Assistant have also made it much easier to perform a standard installation from scratch via only the main graphical user interfaces and quickly get started more compared to earlier versions, as the core development team have for the latest couple of years been putting a lot of time and effort into making Home Assistant more user-friendly to new and less advanced home automation users, with most features being available from the GUI. Thus the team have increasingly moved its configuration settings from its YAML setup files to the latest revisions of its web-based graphical user interface.[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][39][65]

See also

References
  1. https://github.com/home-assistant/core/releases Home Assistant Core releases on GitHub
  2. Lakshmanan, Shankar (26 May 2020). "House Automation using Home Assistant". Medium. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  3. "No Privacy Compromise Home Automation". Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  4. comment, 4 July 2017 Sean Dague Feed 384up 1. "Why can't we have the Internet of Nice Things? A home automation primer". Opensource.com.
  5. "Just how secure is Home Assistant? (Hint: very)". 8 April 2020.
  6. "Home Assistant lets you automate your smart home without giving up privacy". The Ambient. 10 May 2018.
  7. "Secure home automation, without clouds or dedicated hubs". 20 June 2016.
  8. Greenberg, Andy (20 July 2016). "Now You Can Hide Your Smart Home on the Darknet" – via www.wired.com.
  9. Assistant, Home. "Integrations". Home Assistant. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  10. "Wink relents, delays mandatory switch to paid subscriptions indefinitely". TechHive. 22 May 2020.
  11. "Tested: Home Assistant integrations, remote access and voice commands". 1 April 2020.
  12. Young, Chris (24 October 2019). "Using Home Assistant With Ikea Smart Blinds for HomeKit".
  13. Young, Chris (17 May 2019). "Connecting Home Assistant to Apple HomeKit".
  14. "Magical Smart Home Upgrade Lets Muggles Control Their Homes With a Wand Too". Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  15. "Home Assistant with Paulus Schoutsen". Podcast.__init__ (Podcast). 28 January 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  16. "Paulus Schoutsen". Open Sourcecraft (Podcast). 22 March 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
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  18. Brown, Eric (20 June 2016). "Home Assistant: The Python Approach to Home Automation [Video]".
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  20. "Home Assistant". App Store.
  21. "The State of the Octoverse". The State of the Octoverse.
  22. Choudhury, Ambika (9 May 2019). "10 Fastest Growing-Projects On GitHub You Can Contribute To".
  23. on, Ake Gaviar. "GitHub's Top 100 Most Valuable Repositories Out of 96 Million | Hacker Noon". hackernoon.com.
  24. Beutner, Gunnar. "Versatile Valet » Linux Magazine". Linux Magazine.
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  26. "Haushalts-Diplomat". Heise Magazine.
  27. "16 Open Source Home Automation Platforms To Use In 2020". ubidots.com. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  28. comments, 14 December 2017 Jason BakerFeed 1481up 23. "6 open source home automation tools". Opensource.com.
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  30. "My Smarthome Evolution: Part 3 - Current State". HomeTechHacker. 12 December 2019.
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  32. Murphy, Dylan (May 2018). "Controlling smart lights with Home Assistant" (PDF). HackSpace. No. 4. p. 92. ISSN 0016-9900. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  33. "Smart Home Home Assistant KNX Alexa Sprachsteuerung". 11 August 2017.
  34. "Transferring my Z-Wave Network to Home Assistant from Vera". HomeTechHacker. 15 August 2019.
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  39. "How to create automations in Home Assistant that supercharge your smart home". 22 April 2020.
  40. "Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi with HASS.io, Zigbee Conbee II, deCONZ, Xiaomi Aqara sensors from scratch". www.amalytix.com.
  41. Alderson, Alex. "Raspberry Pi: Turn the popular single-board computer into a smart home centre with IKEA TRÅDFRI and Home Assistant support". Notebookcheck.
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  43. "Die Gewinner des Thomas-Krenn-Awards 2018". TKmag. 12 March 2018.
  44. Thomas-Krenn.AG (16 March 2019). "Thomas-Krenn-Award 2019 – Die Gewinner" [Thomas Krenn Award 2019 - The Winner] (in German). Retrieved 18 June 2020. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  45. "Das sind die Nominierten für die Dinacon Awards 2018". www.netzwoche.ch.
  46. "DINAcon begeistert 200 Teilnehmende und die Award-Gewinner 2018" (PDF) (Press release) (in German). 19 October 2018.
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  50. "Best of open source smart home: Home Assistant vs OpenHAB". 28 February 2018.
  51. "It's time for the DIY smart home 2020 challenge with Home Assistant". 19 February 2020.
  52. Jancer, Matt (26 May 2016). "Smart-Home Gadgets Need a Translator Real Bad—Here's How to Get One" – via www.wired.com.
  53. "What Smart Home IoT Platform Should You Use?". hackernoon.com.
  54. "Home Assistant Review – Sean's Technical Ramblings".
  55. "Home Assistant Beginners Guide 2020 – Installation, Addons, Integrations, Scripts, Scenes and Automations – The".
  56. "Build a wireless MQTT temperature and humidity sensor for your Home Assistant | Smartlab".
  57. comments, 10 August 2018 Matthew Treinish Feed 182up 4. "Building a better thermostat with Home Assistant". Opensource.com.
  58. "Smart Home Home Assistant Konfiguration mit YAML". 12 July 2017.
  59. "Weekend Project: Setting up Home Assistant on your PC or Mac". 22 April 2016.
  60. "OpenHab vs Home Assistant vs Domoticz - Best Open Source Home Automation". The Smart Home Blog. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
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  62. "Home Assistant Vs Openhab 2019". 10 August 2019.
  63. "Home Assistant Vs OpenHAB". 29 July 2019.
  64. Gadget-Freak, Chef (28 April 2019). "Comparison between Domoticz and Home Assistant".
  65. "Home Assistant makes your smart devices work together the way you imagined". Android Central. 12 April 2018.
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