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Home Assistant is renaming Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, a mostly symbolic change intended to clarify that the platform runs locally and does not require a cloud service. Link retains its existing paid remote-access and internet-dependent features, while founder Paulus Schoutsen says the company is also working to make Home Assistant easier for newcomers.
Home Assistant is renaming Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, a change founder Paulus Schoutsen described as a response to big technology companies’ use of the word “cloud.” The service’s core features and prices will remain the same, while the new name is meant to make clearer that Home Assistant runs locally and the paid service is optional for remote access and other online features.
The announcement is largely a name change, according to The Verge’s report. Schoutsen said the service will receive back-end improvements aimed at speed and reliability, but its user-facing capabilities are not changing. Link will still let subscribers reach their Home Assistant installations when they are away from home and use selected internet-dependent features.
Those features include connections to Alexa and Google voice control, text-to-speech and speech-to-text tools, and encrypted backups. The reported price is $6.50 a month or $65 a year. Home Assistant can also be used without Link; users have had other ways to provide remote access or similar functions, though they may need to set those up themselves.
Link is operated by Nabu Casa, Home Assistant’s commercial partner. Schoutsen told The Verge that traffic is encrypted and that the company cannot access users’ data. The service also helps fund development: the report says 60 percent of its profit goes to the non-profit Open Home Foundation, which runs Home Assistant.
A Paid Service, Not a Cloud Requirement
The distinction matters to people choosing smart-home equipment: local control can keep a home operating without relying on a manufacturer’s remote servers, while remote access and some voice, backup and language features still depend on internet services. Home Assistant’s position is not that every online feature is undesirable. Schoutsen acknowledged that some functions, including speech processing and backups, work better online; his objection is to products whose basic operation depends on a company’s cloud.
The change also addresses possible confusion about the platform itself. The word “cloud” in the former service name could suggest that Home Assistant’s core system runs remotely. Schoutsen told The Verge that it instead runs on local hardware and controls devices locally. Link is an optional convenience, not a requirement to use the platform.
For manufacturers, Schoutsen advocates local control by default, open standards such as Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, MQTT and ESPHome, and keeping basic functions available without an online account or service. He also said the team is building a database to help consumers identify products that depend heavily on the cloud. The announcement, however, does not establish that the proposed database or a product-label system is already available.
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Home Assistant’s Push for Wider Use
Home Assistant is an open-source smart-home platform often used by people seeking more flexibility than mainstream systems such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple Home offer. That flexibility can also make setup and everyday use more demanding. Schoutsen told The Verge that users commonly discover Home Assistant after reaching the limits of those mainstream options, but that the platform’s range of choices can put off newcomers.
Schoutsen estimated that Home Assistant is installed in 2.7 million homes, according to the report. That figure was his estimate; the article did not provide a measurement method or a comparison over time. He said the team wants to make the service easier to start using without removing advanced features, including through simpler dashboards, more intuitive setup and possible use of generative AI to reduce complexity.
Other plans described in the report include integrating the HACS community store into Home Assistant, with that integration planned for the following month, and developing a more user-friendly successor to the Home Assistant Green hub for next year. Nabu Casa is also developing devices under a “No Device Left Behind” effort to connect existing or legacy equipment. The report did not provide launch dates or detailed specifications for those products.
“Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out.”
— Paulus Schoutsen, Home Assistant founder, speaking to The Verge
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Details Still to Be Confirmed
The report does not give a precise date for when the Home Assistant Cloud name will disappear across the service, apps or documentation. It says the change was announced that day and that the service’s capabilities and subscription prices remain the same. The scale and timing of the promised speed and reliability improvements were not specified.
Several broader plans remain works in progress. The report gives no launch date or technical details for the successor to Home Assistant Green, the “No Device Left Behind” devices, or the product database intended to help shoppers assess cloud dependence. Schoutsen’s description of encrypted traffic and the company’s lack of access to user data is his account of the service; the report does not describe an independent security audit.
It is also unclear how much the simpler setup, dashboards and planned AI features will change the learning curve. The 2.7 million-home figure is an estimate attributed to Schoutsen, and the report supplies no methodology or comparable user figures for competing platforms.
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Onboarding Changes Are Planned
Home Assistant’s next stated steps are to improve setup and usability while maintaining local control and the platform’s broader range of integrations. The team plans to bring HACS into Home Assistant the month after the report, develop a successor to Home Assistant Green for the following year, and continue work on its legacy-device initiative. Those are plans, not completed launches, and dates or specifications may change.
For existing users, the immediate change is the new Link name; the report says subscribers should retain the same features and pricing. For prospective users, the central question will be whether the planned onboarding work makes Home Assistant easier to use without making its optional online service necessary for local smart-home control.
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Key Questions
Is Home Assistant Cloud being shut down?
No. Home Assistant Cloud is being renamed Home Assistant Link. The Verge reports that its existing features will remain, with some back-end work aimed at speed and reliability.
Will users have to pay to use Home Assistant?
No. Link is described as an optional paid service, not a requirement for running Home Assistant locally. The reported subscription price is $6.50 per month or $65 per year.
What does Home Assistant Link provide?
Link provides remote access to a Home Assistant installation, along with optional internet-dependent features such as Alexa and Google voice control, text-to-speech, speech-to-text and encrypted backups.
Why did Home Assistant change the name?
Schoutsen told The Verge that the word “cloud” has acquired negative associations and can make people think Home Assistant itself runs remotely. The platform’s core system, he said, runs on local hardware; Link is the optional service for access and features that use the internet.
What changes are planned to make Home Assistant easier to use?
The team has described simpler dashboards and setup, a planned integration of the HACS community store, and development of a more user-friendly successor to Home Assistant Green. The report also mentions generative AI as a possible way to reduce complexity, but gives no detailed schedule or product specifications for most of those efforts.
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