Home Assistant’s latest update has added a new feature that will significantly expand the range of devices that can be connected to the platform. The Home Assistant 2026.5 update introduced native radio frequency support, allowing users to connect radio frequency devices using transmitter integration.
Home Assistant, an open-source smart home platform, allows users to centralize control of devices using a local network instead of using a cloud-based system. It allows the user to keep their devices connected and work offline.
With this new update, users can use radio frequency for garage doors, ceiling fans, blinds and curtains, doorbells and RF (radio frequency) outlets, among other devices. These are devices that typically work on an RF protocol instead of “smart” connections like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Matter.
Before this update, there was no native and official way to connect such devices to Home Assistant, so the room for experimentation is much greater than the solutions possible with community plugins. This enhances Home Assistant’s efforts to improve device connectivity. A previous update added native infrared support to the platform, meaning TVs, air conditioners and other IR devices can now be attached.
Home Assistant overcomes this by using other integrations in your setup to communicate with enabled devices with RF commands. Frank Nijhof, one of Home Assistant’s lead engineers, explained in the release blog: “The new Radio Frequency integration follows the same model as the last release’s infrared platform. It’s an object type that represents an RF transmitter, like an ESPHome-enabled device with a sub-GHz transmitter attached. You can’t send the RF to install it directly. It issues commands on your behalf, and you just choose which transmitter they use.”
Currently, two custom device integrations will work with this update: Honeywell String Lights and Novy stovetop. You can use Home Assistant to turn your Honeywell Wired Lights on and off using RF commands, along with all the automation features Home Assistant provides. You can also control the Novy cooker hood light and extractor fan.
Franck Nijhof also highlighted that two transmitter integrations are currently supported. You can use any ESPHome with a compatible sub-GHz band. You can also use Broadlink RM4 Pro for this new integration. If you don’t already own the RM4 Pro, make sure you only get the RM4 Pro model as it is the only model in the RM4 series with RF support.
In addition to RF support, this update also added a new Maintenance dashboard for tracking battery levels, smarter automation triggers, and 12 new integrations. Home Assistant also made it possible to connect to the ESPHome device using a serial port proxy.
Source: House helper
