What's new in Kiosk Satellite 2026.11.21
This release shows a plugin's release notes when you update it and adds a Bluetooth proxy switch that lets Bermuda link the proxy to its device. It also fixes screensavers that closed on the first tap beside Now Playing, announcements that dismissed the screensaver and brightness that jumped to full on some Xiaomi tablets.
New Feature: Release notes in the plugin update review (#1440)
A plugin update used to show only the version change and the README, so finding out what changed meant opening GitHub. The review now shows the release notes above the README. See Plugin updates.
- What the author wrote for the new version. The notes are the description of the plugin's GitHub release, shown as formatted text.
- Newest release only. If you skipped a few versions, the plugin's releases page on GitHub has the rest.
- No notes, no section. A release without notes shows the README alone.
- No extra GitHub request. The notes come with the release the review already reads.
- Device and remote admin. Both reviews show the notes.
New Feature: Use the device MAC address for Bluetooth (#1442)
A new switch under ESPHome > Bluetooth Proxy reports the device MAC address as the proxy's Bluetooth address. See Bluetooth Proxy.
- For Bermuda. The proxy's Bluetooth address is otherwise unrelated to the MAC address of its ESPHome device. Bermuda cannot link such a scanner to its device, and Bermuda 0.8.7 then creates no Distance to sensors for any proxy.
- Off by default. Turning it on changes the scanner's address in Home Assistant, so signal offsets stored per scanner in Bermuda have to be entered again.
- Device and remote admin. The switch is on both.
Improvements
- Timers guide. Timers have their own page in the documentation, with the Timers view, setting timers by voice and by hand, shared timers and the settings. Manage timers using Voice Satellite under Settings > Timers opens it.
- Brightness range in the log and in Basic analytics. The
brightness scaleline in the app log now also shows the maximum Android reports and the maximum it converts the setting with. Basic analytics sends the same numbers and the highest brightness value written by something other than Kiosk Satellite. Together they show which tablet models report a range that Android does not use. - Updated "Hey Jarvis" vsWakeWord model. A new build of the model replaces the one from 2026.11.20.
Fixes
- One tap closed every screensaver beside Now Playing (#1446). With Show alongside screensaver on, the first tap on the screensaver panel closed the screensaver. The Website and Home Assistant Dashboard screensavers ignored Double tap to dismiss, so the page or the dashboard could not be used while music played. Celestial closed on the first touch, the Calendar closed on a tap instead of its X button and a plugin screensaver that takes touches closed on the first one. The screensaver panel now takes the same tap or double tap as the screensaver does without Now Playing.
- Announcements dismissed the screensaver (#1441). The ESPHome
announceaction closed the screensaver, even withaudio_onlyset totrue, and the screensaver only came back after its timeout. An announcement now leaves the screensaver up. Withaudio_onlynothing on screen changes. Without it the card shows over the screensaver, like a notification: a dimmed screensaver goes back to the regular brightness while the card is up, and a screen that Turn screen off after made dark lights up to show it. - Full brightness from a few percent up on some Xiaomi tablets. Some Xiaomi tablets on Android 13 or newer report a brightness range up to 2047 or 4095 while Android uses 0 to 255 on them. Any level above a few percent put the screen at full brightness, so the brightness slider, the screensaver brightness and adaptive brightness only worked at the very bottom of the range. The 0 to 255 range is now used on these tablets. Seen on a Redmi Pad 2 running Android 16.