Home Assistant Core 2026.11.0b0 was released on 28 October 2026, opening the next beta cycle with one of the project’s biggest community changes: HACS is becoming the built-in Marketplace. The pre-release also adds Matter 1.5 cameras, a preview of two-way camera audio, local USB and internal-drive storage, LoRaWAN support and Zigbee Green Power devices.
Quick summary
- This is the first 2026.11 beta, not the stable November release. The official notes remain a work in progress.
- Marketplace brings the HACS catalogue and installation workflow into Home Assistant for every installation type, including Container.
- Matter cameras, local disks for backups and media, LoRaWAN networks and batteryless Zigbee switches are the main hardware-facing additions.
Marketplace folds HACS into Home Assistant
The new Settings > Marketplace page is the headline change. It incorporates the existing Home Assistant Community Store experience into Home Assistant’s regular release process, covering community integrations, dashboard cards, themes and templates. Administrators can browse and install projects without a GitHub account, and Home Assistant Container is explicitly supported.
The installation path is shorter than today’s HACS workflow. Selecting Install for an integration takes the user directly into its setup flow without an intervening restart, although Marketplace updates still require a restart for now. Project pages expose the required Home Assistant version, GitHub stars, download numbers and open issues. Installed projects also receive update entities, placing their updates alongside Home Assistant’s own update controls.
Built-in does not mean officially supported. Home Assistant warns that Marketplace projects are community code which is not tested, audited or supported by the core project and may access the internet, disclose data or affect performance. Users can browse before accepting that notice, but must acknowledge the risk before installing or updating anything.
Matter 1.5 cameras arrive, with important limits
The Matter integration now recognises Matter 1.5 cameras and presents live video, snapshots and privacy-mode state. Video uses WebRTC directly between the browser and camera. Discovery depends on the connected Matter server being recent enough to support cameras; updating Core alone does not guarantee that an existing camera will appear.
Two-way audio is a separate Labs preview. It adds a talk button for supported Matter cameras and Reolink models, with Reolink requiring RTSP rather than RTMP or FLV. Browser microphone access currently needs Home Assistant to be opened over HTTPS. The project says support through the Home Assistant apps over HTTP is still being developed.
Local drives, LoRaWAN and batteryless Zigbee switches
Home Assistant can now register a pre-formatted internal or USB drive as Local disk storage for backups, media or shared files. It tracks the drive by file-system identifier rather than a potentially changing device name and raises a repair if the disk disappears. Restoring a backup also avoids making a temporary full copy first, reducing free-space requirements. Our existing Home Assistant NAS backup guide remains relevant for network storage; the beta adds a local-disk alternative rather than replacing SMB or NFS.
LoRaWAN support connects to ChirpStack or The Things Network and adds a Connectivity page for gateways, devices, radio status and network mapping. ZHA also gains Zigbee Green Power support for devices such as energy-harvesting, batteryless wall switches. That does not imply universal support for every LoRaWAN sensor or Green Power product: Home Assistant still needs a matching device integration, and unsupported LoRaWAN devices are listed with an explanation of what is missing.
Beta timing and upgrade advice
The GitHub beta was published on 28 October, while the official release-notes page carries the planned 4 November release date and is explicitly marked unfinished. Features can change or be removed before stable. This is Home Assistant Core, separate from the Home Assistant OS 18.4 release covered yesterday and from the current 2026.10 stable patch line.
For most production homes, waiting for 2026.11 stable is the sensible choice. Beta testers should take a verified backup first and pay particular attention to custom integrations, dashboards and entity names. This esp32.co.uk report reflects beta 0 and the release notes as published on 29 October; later betas may alter the details.
