Home Assistant 2026.4 brings native infrared support to the open source smart home platform, allowing users to control TVs, air conditioners, and other IR-equipped devices through inexpensive ESPHome-powered transmitters. The new Infrared integration works similarly to Bluetooth proxies, enabling Home Assistant to send IR commands to any device with an infrared receiver through small transmitter devices placed around the home. The first integration to support this is LG Infrared, which creates media player entities with power, volume, channel control, and playback commands for LG TVs.
Users can get started quickly with the Seeed Studio XIAO IR Mate, which can be flashed directly from a browser through ESPHome's ready-made projects page. The infrared support aligns with the Open Home Foundation's sustainability goals by extending the life of existing appliances rather than requiring replacement with smart versions. The system is designed to work with any IR protocol, opening the door for future integrations supporting more brands and device types.
The release also introduces cross-domain automation triggers and conditions, allowing users to create automations based on real-world concepts like doors, windows, motion, and temperature rather than technical entity types. New triggers and conditions work across binary sensors, covers, climate devices, and other entity types, with support for targeting by area, floor, or label. The feature includes triggers for door, garage door, gate, window, motion, occupancy, temperature, humidity, illuminance, power, battery, air quality, and climate events. This functionality is currently available as a preview feature through Home Assistant Labs.
Additional features include background colors for dashboard sections with adjustable opacity, full Matter lock management with PIN code support, and the ability to see AI-powered Assist reasoning steps and tool calls in the debug interface. The release adds 14 new integrations including Autoskope, Casper Glow, Chess.com, Fresh-r, Lichess, LoJack, OpenDisplay, Qube Heat Pump, Solarman, TRMNL, UniFi Access, and WiiM. Home Assistant 2026.4 is available now as a free update.
