Weekend Roundup: Home Assistant 2026.11, a $299 Thread Hub, and a SmartThings Paywall — Week Ending November 8, 2026

The Week in 60 Seconds

Home Assistant 2026.11 was released on November 4, 2026, and it builds HACS into the core interface as Settings > Marketplace, as reported by IoT News and Local Smart Home Guide.
Apple HomeView is priced at $299 and is scheduled to reach stores on November 13, 2026, according to IoT For All citing Apple’s newsroom.
According to Local Smart Home Guide, citing a SmartThings Community post dated November 4, 2026, the current SmartThings Home Assistant integration is reported to stop working on December 15, 2026, and its replacement is reported to require a $4.99/month API Developer Plan.
Nordic announced the nRF71 Series on November 3, 2026, bringing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Thread onto one chip, as covered by IoT News and Nordic Semiconductor.

Home Assistant 2026.11: HACS Becomes the Marketplace — and Why You Might Wait for 2026.11.1

What’s actually new: Marketplace, Matter 1.5 cameras, Zigbee Green Power

The November 4, 2026 release of Home Assistant 2026.11 makes community extensions a first-class part of the product. IoT News reports that HACS is now built in as Settings > Marketplace, the standalone HACS installer stops with this release, and existing HACS installations migrate automatically. Local Smart Home Guide describes the same change. Installing from the Marketplace requires accepting a notice about the risks of community software, according to IoT News.

On the Matter side, the release adds support for Matter 1.5 cameras with live WebRTC video and snapshots. A two-way audio capability is available only as a Labs preview and only over HTTPS, as reported by IoT News and myhomeio. For Zigbee users, the release adds Zigbee Green Power support for batteryless switches such as Friends of Hue and treats Zigbee groups as devices, according to IoT News. Entity names are rebuilt from device and area, as noted by IoT News and Local Smart Home Guide.

myhomeio also reports that Home Assistant 2026.11 adds a Thread network page and a Matter network map that shows bridged devices, giving users more visibility into how their radios and Matter bridges fit together.

Should you upgrade now?

Local Smart Home Guide published its weekly brief with the header advice “why I’d wait for 2026.11.1.” That is one outlet’s advice. The body of that specific 2026.11 brief is not in the saved sources used for this roundup, so the reasons behind that recommendation are not characterized here.

After you upgrade: check your HACS-dependent integrations

Because the Marketplace transition changes how community extensions are managed, it is worth auditing anything that depends on HACS. myhomeio reports that it updated three HACS-dependent integrations as part of its own update test. That is a third-party report, not a finding from this roundup, but it is a useful reminder to verify your own setup after moving to the new release.

Supervisor tightens Linux capabilities for add-ons

Local Smart Home Guide reports that the Supervisor stops granting NET_RAW, MKNOD, AUDIT_WRITE, and SETFCAP unless an app requests them. Supervisor 2026.12 is expected to enable this behavior for new installs. Add-ons that need raw sockets or related privileges — including OpenThread Border Router, Matter Server, AdGuard Home, and Tailscale — declare those capabilities or are being updated, according to Local Smart Home Guide.

The $299 Hub Race: Apple HomeView, the Home Collection, and Amazon’s Answer

HomeView and the Thread-native Home Collection

Apple HomeView is positioned as a hub, Matter controller, and Thread Border Router for Apple Home. IoT For All, citing Apple’s newsroom, reports that HomeView costs $299 and reaches stores on November 13, 2026. The same coverage notes that the Apple Home Collection — cameras, video doorbells, locks, and thermostats developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric — is arriving from December, and every device in that collection runs on Thread.

Amazon moved quickly in the same space. IoT For All, citing Engadget, reports that the Echo Dot works as a hub for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter and was introduced about two weeks after Apple’s announcement. For buyers, the practical point is less about brand loyalty and more about protocol support: a hub that speaks Matter and Thread gives you more room to add devices without locking every future purchase to one ecosystem.

What Matter Alpha found in Apple’s product pages

Matter Alpha, as summarized by IoT For All, reviewed Apple’s product pages and found several notable details: NFC tap-to-pair on the LG thermostat and deadbolt, automatic Wi-Fi credential updates, a Thread control path when Wi-Fi drops, and tilt controls for the LG indoor camera. Matter Alpha could not confirm whether Apple uses the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s NFC implementation or its own, and the Wi-Fi fallback appears custom.

IoT For All also says Apple’s description of the LG thermostat suggests the Home app is adopting Matter Binding for climate devices. That should be read as IoT For All’s inference from Apple’s wording, not as an Apple statement.

SmartThings Is Putting Its Home Assistant Bridge Behind a $4.99/month Plan

According to Local Smart Home Guide, citing a SmartThings Community post dated November 4, 2026, SmartThings says the current Home Assistant integration stops working on December 15, 2026. The replacement is reported to arrive in the December 2, 2026 Home Assistant release and to require the $4.99/month API Developer Plan.

This is the week’s clearest lock-in warning. Local Smart Home Guide advises that Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter devices can move to Home Assistant’s own radios. If you are affected, the reported December 15, 2026 cutoff is a practical prompt to migrate devices onto local control rather than pay a recurring fee to keep a bridge working.

New Hardware to Know: A $24.90 Presence Sensor and a Thread LED Controller

Sonoff SenseGuard Presence Core

The Sonoff SenseGuard Presence Core is a 24 GHz radar presence sensor that works over Matter and Wi-Fi and includes a local web console. Local Smart Home Guide, citing Sonoff’s product page as read on November 4, 2026, reports the price as $24.90. Local Smart Home Guide also says a review confirmed both the Matter and MQTT routes into Home Assistant; that review is not among the sources saved for this roundup, so the claim is attributed to Local Smart Home Guide’s citation.

Zemismart MTL3-CW — announced, no price or date

The Zemismart MTL3-CW was announced on November 3, 2026 on Zemismart’s community forum, according to soth.pl. It drives 12 V and 24 V constant-voltage CCT strips, supports brightness from 1–100%, and is rated at 5 A per channel with 20 A total. It uses an external antenna for Thread range, connects over Matter on Thread, and can be controlled through Home Assistant’s built-in Matter integration. A Thread border router is required. No price, release date, or shops have been announced.

Freshly CSA-certified: a lock, a camera, window coverings and a sensor

Certification listings can be an early signal of what may reach buyers next. DarkMatterDB lists several CSA-certified devices added recently: the Aqara Smart Lock U400 (Thread and Bluetooth), the SONOFF Smart Home Security Camera (Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Bluetooth), the Meross MRS100, MRS105 and MRS200 window-covering controllers (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), and the Qingping Temp & RH Monitor T (Thread and Bluetooth). The source does not give certification dates, so none is stated here.

At a Glance: Hub and Hardware Comparison

Product	What it is	Radios / protocol	Price	Availability	Source
Apple HomeView	Hub, Matter controller, and Thread Border Router for Apple Home	Matter, Thread	$299	Stores November 13, 2026	IoT For All
Amazon Echo Dot	Smart speaker that can act as a home hub	Zigbee, Thread, Matter	Not stated in our sources	Not stated in our sources	IoT For All
Sonoff SenseGuard Presence Core	24 GHz radar presence sensor with local web console	Matter, Wi-Fi	$24.90	Not stated in our sources	Local Smart Home Guide
Zemismart MTL3-CW	Controller for 12 V/24 V constant-voltage CCT LED strips	Matter over Thread	Not announced	Not announced	soth.pl
Aqara Smart Lock U400	Smart lock	Thread, Bluetooth	Not stated in our sources	CSA listed, date not stated	DarkMatterDB

The Thread Network Layer: OTBR Updates, Nordic’s nRF71, and a UniFi Rumor

OpenThread Border Router v2026.11.0

myhomeio reports that OpenThread Border Router v2026.11.0 was released on November 1, 2026. The update adds a REST API on a Unix socket and Thread 1.4.1 route diagnostics via /api/v1/diagnostics/route. For people running local Thread infrastructure, these are incremental but practical improvements to observability and integration.

Nordic nRF71: one chip for Wi-Fi, BLE and Thread — with an unmeasured power claim

Nordic announced the nRF71 Series on November 3, 2026. IoT News and Nordic Semiconductor report that the lineup includes the nRF7120 with dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and the nRF7120E with tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and an Axon NPU. The chips combine Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Thread on one chip with a 256 MHz Cortex-M33. Nordic names battery hubs, Matter bridges, Thread border routers, and locks as target uses, and sampling is limited to selected customers — meaning this is not yet a product you can buy.

Nordic also claims “up to 20 times” lower standby power than nRF70. That is Nordic’s own claim, and the sources used for this roundup do not include measured values or test conditions, so it should not be treated as a tested number.

UniFi’s Wi-Fi 7 AP: “appears to include” a Thread radio

Matter Alpha reported on October 23, 2026 that a UniFi Wi-Fi 7 access point “appears to include” a dedicated Thread radio. That is a rumor-grade report, not confirmed hardware, and it should stay on a watch list rather than inform a purchase. Matter Alpha also noted that UniFi Network 11 added Matter and Thread monitoring on October 13, 2026, and that Aqara announced T2 and E14 Matter/Thread lighting on October 21, 2026.

For broader wireless context, the Bluetooth SIG adopted High Data Throughput on November 4, 2026 as an optional Core 7.0 feature, with a 7.5 Mbps top speed (nearly four times the LE 2M PHY) and premium wireless audio as the first expected application in 2027, as summarized by IoT News.

For Tinkerers: A Google-Free Nest and a Local Powerwall Feed

Two local-first projects stood out in Local Smart Home Guide’s weekly coverage. unfr0zen v0.2.7, released November 4, 2026, patches a Nest Learning Thermostat over USB to run without a Google account and offers MQTT, Matter, and Zigbee options. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, the author calls it early software, and Thread support is described as experimental.

ha-powerwall-tedapi v2.6.3, released November 6, 2026, is an MIT-licensed HACS integration for the Powerwall gateway via TEDAPI. Local Smart Home Guide reports that the author tested it on their own Powerwall 3; that is the author’s claim, not a finding from this roundup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I upgrade Home Assistant to 2026.11 right away?

Local Smart Home Guide advises waiting for 2026.11.1. The reasons behind that advice are not detailed in the saved sources used here, so treat it as that outlet’s recommendation rather than a universal rule.

Do I still need HACS?

You no longer need the standalone HACS installer. IoT News and Local Smart Home Guide report that HACS is built into Home Assistant 2026.11 as Settings > Marketplace, the standalone installer stops with this release, and existing HACS installations migrate automatically.

Will my SmartThings devices stop working on December 15?

According to Local Smart Home Guide, citing a SmartThings Community post dated November 4, 2026, the current SmartThings Home Assistant integration is reported to stop working on December 15, 2026. Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter devices can be moved to Home Assistant’s own radios, which Local Smart Home Guide presents as the local alternative.

How much does the Zemismart MTL3-CW cost, and when does it ship?

No price or ship date has been announced. soth.pl, citing Zemismart’s November 3, 2026 community forum announcement, reports the product details but states that price, release date, and shops were not given.

Does two-way audio work with Matter 1.5 cameras yet?

Two-way audio is not a full general release feature in the sources reviewed here. IoT News and myhomeio report that two-way audio is a Labs preview and works only over HTTPS.

Is Nordic’s “20 times lower standby” a tested number?

No. Nordic Semiconductor and IoT News report Nordic’s “up to 20 times” lower standby power claim compared with nRF70, but the sources used here do not include measured values or test conditions.

Should I plan on the UniFi AP for Thread?

Not yet. Matter Alpha reported on October 23, 2026 that the UniFi Wi-Fi 7 access point “appears to include” a dedicated Thread radio. That is an appearance report, not confirmed hardware.

The Bottom Line

Home Assistant users can benefit from the Marketplace transition and Matter 1.5 camera support in Home Assistant 2026.11, but the cautious move is to upgrade deliberately and audit HACS-dependent integrations, in line with the advice and observations reported by Local Smart Home Guide and myhomeio.

For SmartThings users, the reported December 15, 2026 cutoff described by Local Smart Home Guide is a reason to move Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter devices to local radios rather than commit to a $4.99/month plan.

Buyers considering a new hub have a clearer Thread entry point with Apple HomeView at $299 on November 13, 2026, as reported by IoT For All and Apple’s newsroom. The safest long-term strategy remains to buy the protocol — Matter and Thread — rather than the ecosystem. Announcements without prices, dates, or confirmed hardware, including the Zemismart MTL3-CW (soth.pl) and the UniFi Thread-radio report (Matter Alpha), belong on a watch list, not a shopping list.

How This Guide Was Built

We did not run any hands-on hardware testing for this roundup; nothing here is based on our own bench time with HomeView, Echo, Sonoff, Zemismart, nRF71, or Home Assistant 2026.11. Reporting relies on vendor announcements, release posts, certification listings, and press coverage collected November 2–6, 2026, including the Home Assistant 2026.11 release post, Apple’s newsroom, Engadget’s Echo coverage, Nordic’s announcement, the Bluetooth SIG press release, Zemismart’s community forum via soth.pl, Sonoff’s product page via Local Smart Home Guide, the SmartThings Community post via Local Smart Home Guide, DarkMatterDB, and Matter Alpha (Apple NFC/Matter Binding coverage), plus weeklies from IoT News, IoT For All, Local Smart Home Guide, and myhomeio. Where a vendor’s claim is unmeasured or a report is unconfirmed, we say so rather than repeating it as fact.

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