Home Assistant Core 2023.2 has arrived, and it’s bringing some exciting new features to the platform. In this release, Home Assistant is focusing on the first chapter of its Year of the Voice, making it easier than ever to control your smart home with your voice.
Meet: Assist!
The highlight of the 2023.2 release is the new Assist feature, which lets you control Home Assistant with natural language. It is powered by Hassil and the Home Assistant Intents project and supports 22 languages right out of the box. To start using Assist, simply tap the new icon in the top right corner of your dashboard.
Streaming History
Another great addition to the 2023.2 release is the live-updating history. History cards now update in real-time, and the history dashboard is also live. This reduces resource usage, increases storage lifetimes, and should resolve authentication errors for some users.
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Grouping Sensors
The group helper in Home Assistant 2023.2 now supports sensors as well. You can now combine entities with a numeric state, like sensors, numbers, and number helpers entities, into sensor groups. This feature is a more logical and improved version of the previous “Min/Max” integration and “Combine the state of several sensors” helper.
Tighter Integration with ESPHome
Home Assistant 2023.2 brings even tighter integration with ESPHome, making it easier than ever to create and maintain secure DIY IoT devices. The ESPHome add-on now communicates directly with Home Assistant, exchanging encryption keys with just a single click.
New Integrations
Home Assistant 2023.2 also brings a large number of new integrations, making it easier to connect all of your smart devices to the platform. These integrations are now available to set up from the UI.
Breaking Changes
Please note that there are some breaking changes in the 2023.2 release, and some integrations have been retired. Be sure to check the official release notes for a full list of changes.
Final Thoughts
Home Assistant 2023.2 is an exciting release that brings many new features to the platform, including Assist, live-updating history, sensor grouping, and tighter integration with ESPHome. To learn more about the 2023.2 release, please visit the official release notes.
I hope you found this article, "Home Assistant 2023.2: How Can I Assist?", informative and useful. For more smart home automation content, you might want to read this article next: Sonos Wireless Speakers are Just the Perfect Addition to Your Smart Home. If you found this article helpful, Subscribe to the On Motion Detected YouTube Channel, or sign up for our newsletter for more smart home automation content delivered to your inbox.