Home Assistant Renames Cloud to Link, Plans Simpler Setup and New Hub

Schoutsen spoke with The Verge at the Z-Wave Summit in Boca Raton, Florida, this week. He said the change is part of a long-term strategy to make Home Assistant a mainstream smart home platform. Most users find the powerful platform after hitting the limits of mainstream options like Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple Home, according to Schoutsen, but it has a steep learning curve that he wants to change.

The features of the service remain the same, apart from some back-end improvements to speed and reliability, the company said. The new name is intended to address a concern among some new users that “Cloud” meant Home Assistant itself ran in the cloud. Home Assistant runs on local hardware and controls a smart home locally, but that also means users cannot control anything once they leave their home network. For $6.50 a month, Home Assistant Link provides access from anywhere and can enable internet-dependent features such as integration with Alexa and Google voice control, speech-to-text and encrypted backups.

Schoutsen said the renaming addresses an awkward dynamic for Home Assistant. He and his team have spent years campaigning against proprietary cloud ecosystems and encouraging people not to buy cloud-dependent products, while the platform offered a service with “cloud” in its name. Unlike some cloud services, Home Assistant Cloud was never mandatory, and users could replicate everything it provided through other methods, according to the company. The same remains true for Link, Schoutsen said.

Schoutsen said Link differs from many cloud services because it has no access to user data. Link is run by Nabu Casa, Home Assistant’s commercial partner, and all Link traffic is encrypted. “We can’t see it, and we don’t want to,” he said. “You don’t have to trust me not to misuse your data because I just don’t have your data.” The service provides revenue to fund platform development, with 60 percent of the profit going to the non-profit Open Home Foundation, which runs Home Assistant.

For Home Assistant, cloud-dependent products remain a hard no. “The cloud is ruining how people think of the smart home,” Schoutsen said, pointing to recent cases including Nest shutting off the cloud for thermostats in Europe, smart TVs sending user data to the cloud without users knowing, and Weber sunsetting the June Oven’s servers. “Now you have a dumb oven that cost $1,500. It’s crazy,” he said. “People get so used to it and get so disappointed by it.”

Schoutsen conceded that the cloud is not all bad. Speech-to-text, backups and AI work better online, he said, but the problem is products that stop working without a cloud connection. He wants product manufacturers to commit to offering local control by default, using open standards such as Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, MQTT and ESPHome, never locking basic features behind a cloud and allowing users to control their own data. He said he would like to see a “nutrition label” on boxes showing whether a product is cloud-dependent, and that Home Assistant is building a database to help consumers find products that are not fully reliant on the cloud.

The stance could appeal to consumers who are increasingly concerned about who has access to their data, but Home Assistant still has a long way to go before it becomes mainstream. Schoutsen said Home Assistant is installed in an estimated 2.7 million homes, a fraction of the reach of Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings and likely Apple Home. Winning over mainstream users will be difficult.

The biggest barrier to entry is complexity, according to Schoutsen. Home Assistant does a lot, meaning users have a lot of choice, which can be overwhelming. “If you want to try something with Home Assistant, the answer is never no,” he said. “We want everything to be possible, which means that the UX is more complicated, and that scares people.” By comparison, he said, “You open Apple Home, and there’s like nothing you can do.” Schoutsen said the team is looking to lower the floor without lowering the ceiling. As part of that effort, Home Assistant plans simpler dashboards, more intuitive setup and generative AI to reduce complexity, and it intends to launch a new, more user-friendly hub next year. “We’re growing up,” he said.

Editor's Summary

Home Assistant is renaming its Cloud service to Link while keeping the same paid features, as part of a strategy to simplify the platform and attract mainstream users. The company plans simpler dashboards, generative AI assistance and a new hub next year, while continuing to argue that local control and open standards should be the default. Home Assistant remains far smaller than Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home, with about 2.7 million homes installed.