{"id":2938,"date":"2025-05-28T15:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techtrendfeed.com\/?p=2938"},"modified":"2025-05-28T15:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:52:08","slug":"2025-2-iterating-on-backups-house-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techtrendfeed.com\/?p=2938","title":{"rendered":"2025.2: Iterating on backups – House Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/header>\n

House Assistant 2025.2! \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n

Within the earlier launch, we overhauled our backup system<\/a>,
\nand the response was overwhelming! Tons of recommendations and have requests
\ngot here in, so this launch is\u2014as soon as once more\u2014centered on backups. Primarily based on this
\nneighborhood suggestions, we\u2019ve added a great deal of enhancements, together with the primary
\nintegrations to retailer your backups in Google Drive<\/strong>
\nand Microsoft OneDrive<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

This launch additionally brings thrilling new options to Voice<\/strong>! House Assistant can
\nnow name your analog cellphone<\/strong>, and when dinner is prepared, you possibly can broadcast<\/strong>
\nthat message to all voice assistants in your house! However wait\u2026 there\u2019s extra!<\/p>\n

On February 12, 2025<\/strong>, we\u2019re streaming reside on YouTube all about Voice:
\nVoice – Chapter 9<\/strong><\/a>! \ud83c\udf99
\nYou’ll want to subscribe and hit the bell so that you don\u2019t miss it. \ud83d\udece<\/p>\n

Earlier than diving into the discharge notes, I additionally wish to give a shoutout to our
\nassociates at ESPHome<\/strong><\/a> powering a lot of the House
\nAssistant ecosystem, together with House Assistant Voice PE! And
\non February nineteenth<\/strong>, they\u2019ll be internet hosting a
\nreside launch social gathering for ESPHome 2025.2<\/strong><\/a>! \ud83c\udf89<\/p>\n

Benefit from the launch!<\/p>\n

..\/Frenck<\/p>\n

PS: It’s virtually Valentine\u2019s day, did you arrange some romantic scenes but? \ud83c\udf39<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Iterating on backups
\n<\/h2>\n

Within the earlier launch, we totally revamped all the backup expertise<\/a>
\nand added many new options to make it simpler to make use of. That launch set the
\nstage for the following iterations and opened up the power for integrations to
\npresent places to retailer backups.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve obtained so much<\/strong> of suggestions on the brand new backup system, which is superior! \u2764\ufe0f
\nAll of the suggestions helped us prioritize essentially the most requested options, and different
\nenhancements to the backup system.<\/p>\n

This launch consists of a whole lot of essentially the most requested enhancements and skills.<\/p>\n

Unencrypted backups
\n<\/h3>\n

The brand new backup system got here with a whole lot of safety enhancements, together with
\nencryption of backups. Nonetheless, because it seems, many customers use these backups
\nto extract and restore single information or configurations, a use case wherein
\nencryption made issues harder. On this launch we made two modifications
\nto the backup system to handle this.<\/p>\n

Means to show off encryption for particular places
\n<\/h4>\n

Whereas our default advice stays to encrypt backups, as of this
\nlaunch, you possibly can flip off encryption on a per location foundation. This permits you
\nto retailer backups on you native NAS, for instance, in an unencrypted format.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot
\n\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

There’s one exception to this, which is House Assistant Cloud<\/a>. Backups
\nsaved in House Assistant Cloud will at all times be encrypted, and encryption can not
\nbe turned off. At Nabu Casa, we take your privateness and safety very severely,
\nand we by no means ever need to have the ability to entry your knowledge.<\/p>\n

Downloading backups unencrypted
\n<\/h4>\n

When downloading backups from the House Assistant interface, you’ll now at all times
\nobtain the backup in an unencrypted format that may be extracted utilizing your
\nfavourite archive device.<\/p>\n

This works for all backups, whatever the encryption settings of the
\nlocation wherein they’re saved. As an example, when you obtain an encrypted
\nbackup from House Assistant Cloud via the House Assistant interface,
\nit would decrypt the backup on the fly whilst you obtain it.<\/p>\n

Customise the time of your backups
\n<\/h3>\n

The preliminary iteration of the backup system scheduled backups to run at 4:45 AM,
\nhowever this time wasn\u2019t preferrred for everybody. Some, for instance, turned off their
\ncommunity storage through the night time, which means the backup would fail.<\/p>\n

This launch, we added the power to customise the time of your backups to your
\nliking. Moreover, when you select to make weekly backups, now you can choose
\nthe times of the week you need the backup to run.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Taking backups on a sophisticated schedule
\n<\/h3>\n

The above backup time modifications not versatile sufficient for you? Properly, you’re in luck! On this
\nlaunch, we added an motion (backup.create_automatic<\/code>) that you need to use
\nto set off a backup, together with your most popular settings, in an automation.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

This lets you create automated backups on any schedule you want, and even
\nadd situations and actions round it. For instance, you could possibly make an automation
\nthat triggers on a calendar, wakes up your community storage, waits until it’s
\non-line, after which begins a backup.<\/p>\n

Re-introduction of the backup toggle on replace
\n<\/h3>\n

When you run House Assistant OS, you get updates for House Assistant together with
\nall of your add-ons. The replace dialog used to have a toggle to create a backup
\nearlier than updating, which was eliminated within the earlier launch.<\/p>\n

This alteration was made as a result of this characteristic was thought-about redundant when operating
\ncommon automated backups. Nonetheless, we\u2019ve obtained a whole lot of suggestions that many
\nindividuals relied on these backups to make sure that they had the most recent knowledge, for example,
\nin the event that they wanted to roll again to a earlier model of an add-on. We’re
\nre-introducing this backup on replace toggle on this launch, however in a wiser
\nmeans. \ud83e\udd13<\/p>\n

Backup on updating House Assistant
\n<\/h4>\n

When updating House Assistant, the toggle is now turned off by default and
\nexhibits the final time you made a backup. This lets you resolve whether or not to make
\na brand new backup earlier than updating.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

When you flip the change on, a full automated backup is created and synced to
\nyour configured places, earlier than the replace is began.<\/p>\n

This full sync is completed to make sure you have the newest backup out there in
\ncase the replace causes points and it’s worthwhile to restore your system. Within the uncommon
\ncase a House Assistant replace fatally fails and you may\u2019t entry the backup web page,
\nwhen you\u2019ve configured a second backup location, you\u2019ll have the ability to obtain it
\nfrom there.<\/p>\n

Backup on updating add-ons
\n<\/h4>\n

Issues are barely totally different when updating add-ons. The toggle exists right here too,
\nand is disabled by default. Nonetheless, once you allow it, solely a backup of your
\nadd-on and its knowledge is created. That means you possibly can maintain across the earlier
\nmodel of the add-on, so you possibly can at all times roll again to it if wanted.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

To forestall your system from filling up with previous add-on backups, we solely retain
\none backup per add-on, mechanically deleting the earlier backup each time
\na brand new one is created. Add-on backups you created manually, after all,
\nstay untouched and won’t be deleted mechanically.<\/p>\n

Improved filenames for backups
\n<\/h3>\n

One piece of suggestions we\u2019ve seen so much, is that the filenames created by backups
\ncould be a bit cryptic and exhausting to grasp for people.<\/p>\n

This suggestions was honest, because the filename was a hash and initially not designed
\nto be human-readable. This methodology was not newly launched within the final launch,
\nbut it surely was made extra obvious with the brand new backup system and places.<\/p>\n

So, on this launch, we\u2019ve improved the filenames of the backups saved in your
\nbackup places. The filename now consists of the date and time the backup was
\ncreated, making it simpler to grasp and determine the backup you’re looking
\nfor, even exterior of House Assistant.<\/p>\n

New places
\n<\/h3>\n

This launch additionally introduces new places to retailer your backups. There are new
\nintegrations for Google Drive<\/a> and
\nMicrosoft OneDrive<\/a>, and backup help was added to
\nthe Synology DSM<\/a> integration.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Voice
\n<\/h2>\n

Help, our non-public voice assistant<\/a>, is getting a couple of new
\noptions on this launch. When you don\u2019t have Help arrange but, try our
\nHouse Assistant Voice: Preview Version<\/a> to get began.<\/p>\n

House Assistant will have the ability to name your analog cellphone to inform you a message
\n<\/h3>\n

Keep in mind our tutorial on turning an analog cellphone into the
\nworld\u2019s most non-public voice assistant<\/a>?
\nBecause of Jamin<\/a>, we now have a approach to name
\nyour analog cellphone from House Assistant!<\/p>\n

You should utilize assist_satellite.announce<\/code><\/a>
\nto have House Assistant name your cellphone and play a message when somebody picks up
\nthe cellphone.<\/p>\n

When you use an LLM because the brains to your voice assistant, you possibly can take this one
\nstep additional with the brand new assist_satellite.start_conversation<\/code><\/a>
\nmotion. As a substitute of taking part in an announcement, it begins a dialog between
\nHouse Assistant and the consumer, with House Assistant saying the primary message.
\nLeft the storage door open for half-hour? No downside, let House Assistant name
\nand ask in the event that they wish to shut it.<\/p>\n

(Beginning a dialog with the default dialog agent is a little more work
\nand didn’t make it this launch).<\/em><\/p>\n

New Broadcast intent
\n<\/h3>\n

Now you can broadcast messages to each different voice assistant in your house.
\nStrive it by saying \u201cBroadcast it’s time for dinner\u201d<\/em>.
\nAs at all times with new intents, help could range
\nrelying in your language<\/a>,
\nhowever our language leaders are working exhausting on ensuring it is going to be supported
\nquickly in your language!<\/p>\n

Setting Temperature on Thermostat
\n<\/h3>\n

A number of releases in the past we launched an intent to get the present temperature from
\na local weather system. As of this launch, you can too set the goal temperature
\nof your thermostat by voice.<\/p>\n

By saying \u201cSet the temperature to 19 levels\u201d<\/em> it will neatly goal the
\nspace you’re in (you probably have a thermostat per space, resembling thermostatic valves
\nin your radiators) or the ground you’re in (when you solely have a central unit).
\nIt’s also possible to goal particular units by identify when you desire.<\/p>\n

LLMs meet calendars
\n<\/h3>\n

With out complicated customized tooling, LLM-based dialog brokers beforehand might
\nnot fetch occasions out of your calendar. This launch modifications that. Out of the field,
\nLLM-based brokers can now retrieve right this moment\u2019s and this week\u2019s occasions from any of
\nyour calendars. Don\u2019t overlook to
\nexpose your calendar entities<\/a>
\nto allow this performance.<\/p>\n

Shared historical past between the default dialog agent and its LLM-based fallback
\n<\/h3>\n

In 2024.12<\/a> we launched a stunning characteristic
\nthat allowed you to make use of our quick and native default dialog agent for many
\nqueries whereas nonetheless having the ability to fall again to a way more highly effective LLM-based
\nagent for extra complicated queries.<\/p>\n

This launched some fascinating behaviors. From a consumer perspective, it appeared
\nsuch as you had been speaking to the identical assistant, whereas, in actuality, nothing was
\nshared between the 2 brokers. This led to some less-than-optimal situations,
\nresembling this one:<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

The primary command is processed regionally by our default agent, however the follow-up
\nrequest is processed by the LLM-based agent. Since no reminiscence is shared, it does
\nnot perceive what system you wish to flip off.<\/p>\n

Beginning with this launch, each brokers now share the identical command historical past,
\nserving to handle this difficulty.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Mannequin Context Protocol
\n<\/h3>\n

This launch provides the Mannequin Context Protocol<\/a>
\nto House Assistant because of Allen<\/a>. House Assistant can each be an
\nMCP server<\/a> and an
\nMCP consumer<\/a>. From the MCP web site:<\/p>\n

\n

MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how functions present context to LLMs. Consider MCP like a USB-C port for AI functions. Simply as USB-C gives a standardized approach to join your units to numerous peripherals and equipment, MCP gives a standardized approach to join AI fashions to totally different knowledge sources and instruments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To offer it a attempt your self, try this consumer demo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Integrations
\n<\/h2>\n

Because of our neighborhood for maintaining tempo with the brand new integrationsIntegrations join and combine House Assistant together with your units, providers, and extra. [Learn more]<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nand enhancements to current ones! You\u2019re all superior \ud83e\udd70<\/p>\n

New integrations
\n<\/h3>\n

We welcome the next new integrations on this launch:<\/p>\n