Nest not accepting new Developer Accounts

• Nest, the smart smoke detector and thermostat, is no longer accepting developer applications with their service. This means users cannot get access to the Nest API to access features and control of their system. Ie, you can’t integrate your Nest products without access to the Nest API, as Home Assistant requires keys from their API.
• In a response to a tweet from Home Assistant, Nest said “We’re currently restructuring our developer program and are no longer accepting new developers to the program or performing client integration reviews for existing developers until the new program is implemented. Stay tuned for further details and announcements.”
• Reddit user CHI3F117 on r/homeassistant says you can still register for a developer account, as they are not completely blocking developer accounts at this stage. So for now, just ignore the messages!
• Nest was bought by Google in 2014 for $3.2 billion

Philips Hue Power on settings now available

• Owners of Philips Hue smart bulbs can now take advantage of a new feature Philips Hue has rolled out in December.
• You can now specify what happens when a light bulb receives power. Previously when power was restored to a Hue bulb or light strip, the light would turn back on at full brightness and warm white.
• With this new feature, you can decide whether bulbs turn on at a certain brightness and colour, or if they don’t turn on at all.
• This means if you get a power failure at 4am in the morning, the lights won’t turn on and wake you.
• Users of zigbee2mqtt can also take advantage of this, assuming your bulbs are running the latest firmware. https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-shepherd-converters/pull/209

0.86

New Features

• New Zigbee Control Panel There’s new Zigbee Control Panel with this release. If you’re using the Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) component with Home Assistant, this panel will now be available to you.The new panel allows you to perform several new actions, including adding entities, cluster commands, and much more. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant-polymer/pull/2421
• Homekit Alarm Panel Support Adds support for HomeKit security systems to appear as alarm control panels in Home Assistant https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19612
• Homekit Locks and Covers You can now see and control your Homekit connected locks and covers (ie curtains and garage doors) in Home Assistant. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19867 https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19866

Breaking Changes

• Big changes to Time Triggers in Automations To better support time triggers in the front-end automation editor, the time triggers for automations will be changing slightly.Previously, to have an automation triggered every 10 minutes, you would specify platform: time, with an at: minutes: /10From 0.86, these will be moved to a new platform called time_pattern. To schedule an automation to trigger every 10 minutes, you will now need to specify the platform as time_pattern, then specify the pattern, for example minutes: 10. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19825

• Locative and GPSLogger are now separate components These components have been upgraded to use Webhooks. As such, you’ll now need to set these components up from the integrations panel inside Home Assistant. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19964 https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/20044
• New Roku Component Enhancements There’s a new Roku component with this release of Home Assistant. Roku users will need to update their configuration YAML files to add the new Roku Component.The new component introduces a new “Roku Remote” component, which allows you to send remote control button presses to your Roku. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/17548

• Support for Multiple Fibaro Gateways You will now need to specify a list of gateways, even if you only have one. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19705
• OpenUV will no longer auto update From February 1st, OpenUV will reduce the number of API calls you can make to 50 per day (on their free tier). A new service in Home Assistant has been added, openuv.update_data which must be called to fetch new data from OpenUV. Users should add an automation which runs at certain intervals throughout the day to call this service. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19949

Other Noteworthy Updates

• MQTT Vacuums now support auto discovery You can now have Home Assistant automatically detect MQTT connected Vacuums on your system. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19479
• You can now specify icons that aren’t just from Material Design Icons Thomas Loven has created a great repo, allowing you to use icons from Font Awesome in Home Assistant.These can be used in Lovelace by including the necessary files https://github.com/thomasloven/hass-fontawesome
• Ikea Tradfri lights will now be marked unavailable when communication errors occur https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19288

• Fail2ban sensor now supports IPv6 addresses https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19457
• Arlo Alarm Panel can now be set to night mode https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/20143

Lovelace