Smart home devices can be great, but they aren’t perfect, and they are often only officially compatible with ecosystems managed by Google or Amazon. If you want something that’s a little bit more advanced and decentralized, Home Assistant might just be for you. Now, Home Assistant is getting a device certification program and a new organizational structure.

Home Assistant, a community-built, open-source smart home platform, has undergone a significant transformation by becoming part of the newly formed Open Home Foundation, a non-profit entity dedicated to governing and owning Home Assistant and its related entities. The foundation is spearheaded by Home Assistant’s creators and inaugural board members, and while in the future it might become bigger than just Home Assistant, right now it’s basically only that.

Despite its powerful features, Home Assistant has faced challenges in reaching mainstream adoption due to its steep learning curve and complexities in device onboarding and user interface. However, with the emergence of the industry-backed smart home standard, Matter, Home Assistant sees an opportunity to align itself as a consumer brand and compete with major players like Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and Google. To do that, they need to be a bit more “traditional,” and they need backing for growth. That’s basically the thinking behind creating the foundation—make the platform bigger.

The foundation’s strategic roadmap includes initiatives such as launching the Home Assistant Green smart home hub, expanding the Works With Home Assistant program, developing voice control hardware, integrating AI models for local processing, and enhancing the platform’s user interface for broader accessibility. Ultimately, the point of this organizational change is to pitch Home Assistant as a more user-friendly and mainstream option for smart home enthusiasts. More changes will need to be made than just that, though.

As Home Assistant evolves under the umbrella of the Open Home Foundation, it seeks to capitalize on the growing demand for privacy-centric, interoperable smart home solutions while staying true to its mission of providing users with greater control and autonomy over their connected devices. Whether it can successfully navigate this transition and emerge as a leading contender in the smart home market remains to be seen, though, especially in the face of competition from other, much more popular platforms.

Source: The Verge