Home Assistant Labs introduction

We’re closing out the final Home Assistant release for 2025 with Frenck and a massive Home Assistant 2025.12. Home Assistant Labs, purpose‑specific triggers and conditions, a smarter automation UI, real‑time power flows in Energy, Android Auto/Widgets improvements, tons of new integrations, and more. Plus hardware talk: ZBT2, Zigbee 4, and Matter.js joining the Open Home Foundation.

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Chapters

00:00:00 Welcome

00:03:30 Frenck’s streaming cadence and creator burnout

00:06:45 Moving houses: keep or strip the smart home?

00:10:46 EV charger dilemma & e‑waste perspective

00:12:50 2025 recap: guests, sponsors, community

00:15:50 Home Assistant ZBT-2 launch, Zigbee 4 headlines, migrations

00:19:10 Open Home Foundation structure & focus areas

00:22:59 Matter.js joins OHF and why it matters

00:24:59 Arduino policy changes & the ESPHome angle

00:25:34 2025.12 overview and Labs introduction

00:26:44 Home Assistant Labs: opt‑in previews, backups, feedback

00:31:55 Purpose‑specific triggers & conditions explained

00:40:50 New automation UI: target‑first and context‑aware

01:03:17 Home dashboard upgrades & the new For You sidebar

01:13:21 Energy dashboard: live power flows and water devices

01:19:40 Android: Add to Widgets & Android Auto favorites

01:23:13 ESPHome entity IDs standardized for new devices

01:24:17 Pet tech: Tuya litter boxes and assorted updates

01:25:10 OpenAI model update, SQL templates, UI card tweaks

01:27:49 New integrations roundup (Hue BLE, Victron BLE, more)

01:32:18 Template helper deprecation, repairs, migration path

01:35:38 Integration removals: Domino’s & Hive alarm changes

01:36:54 32‑bit/supervised deprecation & migration guidance

01:40:25 CES plans, upcoming episodes

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

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Products Discussed

Home Assistant ZBT2 (Zigbee radio): https://amzn.to/4pLxykT

Lutron Caseta light switches: https://amzn.to/48rNmSN

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

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Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

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