Smart Home Guide

Home Assistant 2026.11 beta: Matter cameras, a built-in HACS Marketplace and a naming change to prepare for

The stable release is planned for 4 November. Here is what the beta adds, and the three things worth checking before you press Update.

By Andrew Ingleton · Published

Illustration from the Home Assistant blog for its November feedback month
Home Assistant artwork from the project's October 2026 'What the Heck?!' post (not a 2026.11 screenshot) © Home Assistant / Open Home Foundation

Home Assistant 2026.11 entered beta on 28 October, with the stable release planned for Wednesday 4 November according to the community write-ups we checked. At the time of writing the project's own blog had not yet published the release post, so everything below comes from the beta coverage by simon42, its HACS Marketplace article and Matter Alpha. Details may change before the final release, so treat this as a preview and re-read the official notes when they appear.

Matter cameras and two-way talk

The Matter integration gains support for cameras (part of Matter 1.5): snapshots and live video, streamed over WebRTC directly between your browser and the camera. A camera's privacy mode is respected. You will need a Matter server that already supports cameras.

Two-way audio arrives as a Labs feature (Settings, System, Labs). A talk button appears in the live view for supported cameras and doorbells; in this release that means Matter cameras and Reolink cameras using RTSP. Two caveats from the coverage: browsers only allow microphone access over HTTPS, so you must reach Home Assistant securely, and talk-back does not work over RTMP or FLV streams.

HACS becomes a built-in Marketplace

The community store moves into the core as Settings, Marketplace, with the same catalogue of integrations, dashboard cards, themes and templates. Browsing, installing and updating no longer needs a GitHub account (custom repositories added by link still do). A warning reminds you that community content is not reviewed by Home Assistant, and you must confirm it before installing.

Existing HACS installations migrate on first start: items stay installed and keep receiving updates, and entity IDs are unchanged. Per the simon42 article, a few things do not carry over cleanly:

  • AppDaemon apps and Python scripts are no longer managed. They keep running but stop receiving updates, and a repair notice lists them.
  • Dashboard resources move to /local/community/. Old /hacsfiles/ paths still work, but YAML-managed resources show a notice.
  • Templates using integration_entities('hacs') return nothing and must become integration_entities('marketplace').
  • HACS itself can no longer be installed on 2026.11 or later.

Entity naming: the breaking change

Entities are now named by function (for example "Temperature"), with the device name prepended automatically. Cards and badges without a custom name will therefore show "device name + entity name", which can look long. Entity IDs stay the same, so automations and scripts keep working, and custom names are migrated. Renamed entities keep the old name as an alias for voice assistants. If a label is too long, rename the device, mark the entity as the device's main entity, or set a name on the card. Update custom cards first, and move templates from friendly_name towards entity_name(), device_name() and area_name().

Smaller additions

  • Exclude targets in automations, and the exclusion stays dynamic: "all ground-floor lights except the kitchen" also skips a kitchen lamp added later.
  • Self-populating dashboard sections for a device or for entities matching a criterion.
  • Backups and media on internal or USB drives, as well as network storage (the drive must already be formatted).
  • LoRaWAN sensors via ChirpStack or The Things Network, and Zigbee Green Power support in ZHA for batteryless switches.

Before you update

  1. Take a full backup and download a copy off the machine.
  2. List any AppDaemon apps, Python scripts and YAML dashboard resources you rely on through HACS.
  3. Search your templates for hacs and friendly_name, then update custom cards before the core.

If you do not yet use HACS and can wait a week, waiting avoids installing it and signing in to GitHub altogether. And if you update on release day, remember Home Assistant's own advice for any x.0 release: give it a few days if the house depends on it. Our review of the previous release is in Home Assistant 2026.10.

Note: the November 'What the Heck?!' feedback month is running too: the project is asking everyone in the household, not just the administrator, what confuses them.

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