It's time for the August Newsletter 🎉 This month we sow the seeds, you grow the (open) home 🌱. We're talking about HAIR, the ESPHome Starter Kit and publishing our Home Assistant Survey dataset! Read on 👇 newsletter.openhomefoundation.org/we-sow-the-s... #HomeAssistant #Newsletter #SmartHome

Who actually lives in a smart home? We asked and today the answers are yours! 🎉 The anonymized results of our first Home Assistant community survey are now free for everyone: a rich dataset published openly for anyone to check, build on, and benefit from. Read on 👇

Anonymous and open to all: The Home Assistant survey dataset – Open Home Foundation

We surveyed 8,616 Home Assistant users about their smart homes – see the anonymized results, what we learned, and how you can explore the data yourself.

openhomefoundation.org

Presence detected 🏡 Want to talk shop with a specific team member at IFA Berlin? Here's when we're home. Stop by, say hi, and geek out about your favorite topics. 👋

Shh 🤫 If you're at IFA this year, don't forget to come by our booth and grab some stickers.

Mark your calendars, because Community Day returns on Saturday, November 7, 2026! 🎉 We'll be releasing full details (with a fresh website 👀) in September, but read on for a sneak peak at some exciting changes for this year's event 👇 #HomeAssistant #ESPHome #SmartHome #Meetups

Community Day 2026: Save the date! – Open Home Foundation

Community Day returns on Saturday, November 7, 2026! We learned a lot from last year’s debut event, and have exciting plans to make this one even better.

openhomefoundation.org

📢 INTRODUCING THE ESPHOME STARTER KIT! 🎉 Designed and built by our commercial partner Apollo Automation, the ESPHome Starter Kit gives you the tools, skills and confidence to stop just using smart home tech, and start creating it. Build, Learn, Automate. esphome.io/starter-kit

🚨We're LIVE with ESPHome Starter Kit launch! 🎥 Come and see what we've been building with our commercial partner Apollo Automation. #HomeAutomation #SmartHome #ESPHome #HomeAssistant

ESPHome Starter Kit Product Launch - Build. Learn. Automate.

In this stream, we'll be launching our first official ESPHome hardware product - The ESPHome Starter Kit. Join the team and special guests as they dive deep ...

youtube.com

1 HOUR! 🎉 We're launching the ESPHome Starter Kit at 21:00 CEST on the ESPHome Youtube Channel. It's us, commercial partners Apollo Automation, special guests and YOU! See you there for all the details! 🎉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK2H...

In this stream, we'll be launching our first official ESPHome hardware product - The ESPHome Starter Kit. Join the team and special guests as they dive deep ...

youtube.com

👀 ESPHome Starter Kit launch is tomorrow. See you there.

ESPHome@esphome.io · 3w ago

🚀 24 hours to go! The ESPHome Starter Kit drops tomorrow, Aug 12 at 21:00 CEST. We're celebrating with our commercial partner Apollo Automation and special guests Reed (Smart Home Solver), Simon (Simon Says Home Assistant), and Gavin (Hometech.fm). See you there for all the details! 🎉

🚀 T-minus one week to lift-off! The ESPHome Starter Kit launches next Wednesday, Aug 12 at 21:00 CEST. Join us as we celebrate with our commercial partner Apollo Automation, plus special guests Reed (Smart Home Solver), Simon (Simon Says Home Assistant), and Gavin (Hometech.fm). See you there! 🎉

In this stream, we'll be launching our first official ESPHome hardware product - The ESPHome Starter Kit. Join the team and special guests as they dive deep ...

youtube.com

🏠 IFA is almost here, and we're bringing a whole smart home with us! Come find Team Open Home Foundation in the Smart Home Hall, Booth 153. We'll be in our smart home away from home, and you're welcome to join us. See you there! 👋 www.openhomefoundation.org/blog/ifa-ber...

Google restricted key Android features to its own apps. When the European Commission asked us what we thought about about it, we had plenty to say. And they listened. Alphabet must now open up 11 Android features to third-party assistants. Read more 👇

A big win for Android interoperability – Open Home Foundation

Google gatekept key Android features, and the European Commission asked what we thought about it. Now Alphabet must open 11 Android features to all.

openhomefoundation.org

Find out how and why we’re implementing analytics on our websites: via open source software with no personal data collection or tracking. Read more 👇

Find out how and why we’re implementing analytics on our websites: via open source software with no personal data collection or tracking.

openhomefoundation.org

The ESPHome Starter Kit is coming soon, and you're invited to our official launch party! Join us on Aug 12 to dive into the detail with our partners Apollo Automation and some other familiar faces as we celebrate lift-off 🚀 youtube.com/live/aK2HMY9... #HomeAutomation #SmartHome #HomeAssistant

In this stream, we'll be launching our first official ESPHome hardware product - The ESPHome Starter Kit. Join the team and special guests as they dive deep ...

youtube.com

You're invited to our "Cozy Sanctuary" at IFA Berlin! These shows can be exhausting. So stop by for a coffee and chat! You'll be able to rest, recharge, and get hands-on with products and merch 👕 in your smart home away from home 🏠 Read More 👇

IFA Berlin 2026: Save the date – Open Home Foundation

Mark your calendars! From September 4 to 8, 2026, the Open Home Foundation will be exhibiting at IFA Berlin – and you’re invited.

openhomefoundation.org

Take a trip with us to one of the world's largest botanical gardens, where they're using Home Assistant to make tech more approachable 🌱, the new ESPHome Device builder, and preview our device database! newsletter.openhomefoundation.org/the-walled-g... #SmartHome #HomeAutomation #Newsletter

🎉 The preview of our community-powered device database is live! Think "Wikipedia of smart home devices." Powered by real-world usage from thousands of Home Assistant users who opted in back in February, this is just the first step. More to come as we keep building in the open.

Building the device database together: Public preview now live – Open Home Foundation

Explore the preview edition of our community-powered smart home device database. We need your input to make this tool as accessible and useful as possible.

openhomefoundation.org

Mark your calendars 🗓️ We're exhibiting at IFA Berlin 2026, from Sept 4 to 8! Join us to discover what’s possible when privacy, choice, and sustainability are at the heart of smart home tech. www.openhomefoundation.org/blog/ifa-ber...

It's time for the June Newsletter! This month were breaking free from the disposable smart home, talking major Matter upgrades and ask for your input on the future of our newsletter. newsletter.openhomefoundation.org/breaking-fre... #Newsletter #HomeAutomation #SmartHome #HomeAssistant #Privacy

The most sustainable device is the one you already own. 🌍 That's why our recent releases of Home Assistant and ESPHome help you bridge the gap between your smart devices and older, offline protocols. Read more 👇

Discover how Open Home Foundation projects can help you give your beloved old devices a new lease of life for a more sustainable smart home.

openhomefoundation.org

Learn why Home Assistant has chosen to partner with the #ZWave Alliance since day 1. It's local control and user choice combined with Z-Wave’s proven security and reliability advances an ecosystem that reduces cloud dependency while ensuring #interoperability: z-wavealliance.org/why-home-ass...

Home Assistant and Z-Wave: Building an Open, Private Smart Home

Learn how Home Assistant and the Z-Wave Alliance work together to promote local control, privacy, interoperability, and certified smart home devices through the Works with Home Assistant program.

z-wavealliance.org

As part of our commitment to building in the open, we’re proud to publish the foundation’s very first Annual Report for 2025 🎉 From structural changes to big projects, it gives a detailed look into who we are and how we operate, along with our wins of 2025 and what’s next! Link below 🔗🧵

"Choice" is one of the Open Home Foundation's three core principles. And we believe you should be free to choose a voice assistant that actually speaks your language. That's why we've released 23 text-to-speech datasets – free to use, for everyone.

Open Home Foundation TTS datasets on Mozilla Data Collective

Most voice assistants listen and respond in a handful of languages. Try to build one for your home that speaks your language, though, and you quickly run into a wall: the training data does not exist, or it is locked behind licences that make it unusable for open source projects.

community.mozilladatacollective.com

We're thrilled to announce OpenDisplay as a new collaboration partner! This open standard makes it easier than ever to build low-power smart home displays that don’t look like glaring screens. 😎 Discover why we think they’re a great fit for us in our recent blog!

Find out how we're bringing the versatility and practicality of e-paper to a wider audience by teaming up with our new collaboration partner, OpenDisplay.

openhomefoundation.org

For our May newsletter, we discuss research as an antidote to 'software brain'. 🧠 Plus learn about our new collaboration partner: OpenDisplay, choose from our list of community meetups, and much more 👇

Research as an antidote to ‘software brain’

Discover how we use human-computer interaction research to help build smart homes that adapt to the people who use them, not the other way round.

newsletter.openhomefoundation.org

From our first peer-reviewed paper to the decisions behind our projects 🚀 Open Home Foundation researchers Annika Schulz and Idil Bostan unpack how research shapes everything we do.

From our first peer-reviewed paper to the decisions behind our projects: Open Home Foundation researchers Annika Schulz and Idil Bostan unpack how research shapes everything we do.

openhomefoundation.org

It's the April newsletter! This month, we reflect on an amazing State of the Open Home 2026, what it means to truly "Build in the open", and what's coming next. 🚀 Read on for roadmaps, RSS feeds, meetups and more! 👇 #Newsletter #SmartHome #HomeAssistant

We celebrate the people and passion that made this year's State of the Open Home so special: and share the event video so you can see for yourself!

newsletter.openhomefoundation.org

Let's hear it for our speakers! 🎤 The team covered how we're building in the open, what's next from our commercial partners, and a new roadmap that you can shape! Thank you for joining us at State of the Open Home 2026. 🎉 #SmartHome #HomeAutomation #HomeAssistant #ESPHome #MusicAssistant

The Open Home Foundation has an official blog now! 🎉 For our first post, we have the State of the Open Home recap blog. Thanks so much to everyone who joined us in person and watched us live - if you missed out on the live event, you can find the whole thing on our Youtube channel. #HomeAutomation

Building what's next: State of the Open Home 2026 – Open Home Foundation

From a new Community department to a public roadmap awaiting your input – and more. Catch up on the event highlights and help shape what we build next.

openhomefoundation.org

That's a wrap on State of the Open Home 2026! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who joined us in Utrecht and watching worldwide! We are so excited for the year ahead. Let's build in the open together!