This is Panel Assistant 1.0, the Home Assistant integration. Panel Assistant and each panel now share one connection for everything: the sidebar, updates, voice and settings, which is what makes most of the changes below possible. MQTT and the move from the old panel app are gone for good. These notes cover what you will notice since 0.9.0, not every commit; if something does not work on your panel, please open an issue with the panel model and what you saw.
Pairs with the 1.0.0 panel app, which each panel is offered as an update.
Before you install
- Panel Assistant 1.0.0 supports only installations that have run 0.9.0. If you are on Panel Assistant 0.8.0 or older, or any panel still runs an MQTT-era release, update to Panel Assistant 0.9.0 first and let it move every panel to the native connection, then update to 1.0.0. 1.0.0 has no MQTT path: a panel that was never moved, or that still runs the old ha-paneld app, is refused with a Repair that takes you back through 0.9.0.
- Panel Assistant 1.0 and the 1.0 panel app go together. This release speaks only the 1.0 panel app's connection. A panel on an older app gets a Repair saying which app it needs and is offered the update, which Panel Assistant delivers over the panel's network ADB connection, so a panel without one needs reconnecting with the USB installer first.
- There is no way back to 0.9 for a panel. Android does not install an older build over a newer one.
- Make a Home Assistant backup before you install 1.0.0. Going back to Panel Assistant 0.9.0 means restoring it, and a panel already on the 1.0 app stays out of reach until Panel Assistant is on 1.0 again.
- Two entities are gone. The separate camera snapshot image entity is removed; use the panel's camera entity. On a panel with a speaker the separate volume number is removed; use the media player's volume. If an automation or script still uses that volume number, a Repair names it.
New
- WebView updates during install and update. On a supported panel, installing the panel app, over the network or with the USB installer, also has the panel install a compatible, verified WebView, and so does a panel app update you start in Home Assistant. When only the WebView is behind, the panel's update offers it on its own. If the WebView step does not finish, setup and pairing carry on, and a Repair lets you try the WebView again without reinstalling the app.
- The sidebar works for a panel Panel Assistant cannot reach. The sidebar shows the panel's own pages and passes their requests over the connection the panel keeps to Home Assistant, so a panel on another network segment or behind a firewall can still be viewed and configured, and while the panel restarts the sidebar waits with a themed card and comes back on its own. On a panel's device page, Visit opens the panel in the sidebar, or, when the sidebar cannot show it, the panel's own page at its last known address.
- A Remove from this panel button. Each panel's device has one. Pressing it changes nothing on the panel: it shows a notification and adds a Repair, under Settings, that links to what removal can do to that panel. Panel Assistant is removed only when you choose Remove there; Keep Panel Assistant closes the Repair and the notification.
- Panel logs in one place. Configure on any panel offers Panel logs (all panels): pick one destination for every panel, including ones you add later, either the Home Assistant log, a syslog server over UDP or TCP, or an HTTP endpoint, and set the app and system log levels. Nothing is sent until you choose a destination, and system logs stay off unless you turn them on.
- Panel voice commands. Say "show the kitchen page", "show Android settings" or "show the launcher" to the panel you are speaking to, and Home Assistant's own requests such as turning the screen off understand the panel's screen by its everyday name. The commands work in every language Panel Assistant ships.
- Wake words for every panel. Import a wake word once in the sidebar and every panel with a microphone installs it, including panels added later.
- The room goes quiet while you talk to a panel. When a panel starts listening, Panel Assistant turns every other media player playing in the panel's Home Assistant area down to 30% of its volume, hidden ones included, and mutes one that can only mute, such as some TVs. They stay down through any follow-up question and go back to their volume when the conversation ends, unless someone changed a player's volume in the meantime.
- Updates reach a panel Panel Assistant cannot address. With the 1.0.0 panel app, when a panel's stored address does not answer but the panel is still connected to Home Assistant and can install its own update, Panel Assistant takes its backup and delivers the update over that connection. A panel without network ADB can also update itself with one tap: the update waits on the panel until someone taps Install in Android's confirmation.
- Navigation buttons. Each panel has Show dashboard, Back, Launcher, Android settings and Recent apps buttons, so an automation can bring a panel back to its dashboard after a doorbell, an alarm or a video. Back appears only on a panel that can perform it.
- Dashboard theme, idle return and screen timeout in Home Assistant. Each panel offers a Dashboard theme select (Follow Home Assistant, Dark, Light or Ambient) and numbers for its idle return to home and Android's screen timeout, so an automation can change them.
- Meta Portal and Shelly Wall Display setup during installation. On a Meta Portal, installing the panel app also turns off Meta's screensaver and hides Meta's swipe-up bar; on a Shelly Wall Display it switches off Shelly's corner overlay. Panel Assistant notes the vendor's settings first and puts them back if you remove the panel app. Shelly Wall Displays are also found by their own network announcement, whether or not the panel app runs.
- The right display and text size from the first boot. Where a panel's profile recommends a display size and text size, and the panel cannot set them itself, Panel Assistant sets them during installation, over the network or with the USB installer, and puts back the earlier size if you remove the panel app.
- Screens switch fully off. Install and update grant the panel app the permission it needs to switch the screen fully off on panels whose firmware keeps it on, and once a panel has finished its setup Panel Assistant makes the panel app a device admin, with only the right to lock the screen, so a panel without root whose screen timeout does not take switches off instead of dimming. If the panel has a screen lock PIN, waking it after such a screen-off asks for the PIN.
- Proximity setup as part of setting up a panel. When a panel's proximity sensor needs setting up before a wave can wake it, a Repair explains how to start it from the panel's page in the sidebar, and clears once the setup is saved.
- More on the device page. Each panel reports whether USB debugging is on, and a device another integration made for the same hardware, such as the Shelly integration's for a Shelly Wall Display, shows as linked.
- A warning for a panel that uses another Home Assistant. When you add a panel that is connected to a different Home Assistant, Panel Assistant tells you instead of adding it silently.
Changed
- A finished voice timer keeps ringing until you stop it. As on a Voice Preview Edition, the panel rings again and again until you say "stop", or for about 15 minutes. Saying "stop" needs the 1.0.0 panel app with its stop word turned on.
- A few Italian, Polish and Brazilian Portuguese voice phrasings are left to Home Assistant. Where Home Assistant 2026.11's own commands use the same words, such as "głośniej" and "ciszej" for media volume or "fammi vedere" for media search, Panel Assistant no longer answers them, so the two never compete for one request. Each panel command keeps its other phrasings.
- Repairs show how to fix the problem. Every Repair has short, numbered steps, a link to the setting or instructions you need, and a Learn more link, translated into every supported language. A failed update's Repair includes the panel's recent warning and error log lines in its support report, and Try again tells you when the panel is still busy instead of recording a new failure.
- A new panel finishes its own setup before it is added. After a USB or network install, the panel keeps its own launcher while you go through its setup. Once that is finished, Panel Assistant adds it as the Home Assistant account it signed in with, without asking you to confirm, makes the panel app the home screen and grants the camera and microphone where the panel has them; every update and repair sets the home screen again. If a panel that already has an account later signs in as a different one, Panel Assistant still asks before it switches.
- A reinstalled panel rejoins its existing entry. When the panel app is reinstalled from scratch, even at a new address, Panel Assistant recognises the panel and keeps its entities, entity IDs and history, and the install offer says which entry it rejoins.
- Removing Panel Assistant from a panel also deletes it from Home Assistant. Whether you start from the button or from Configure, removal gives back the panel's home screen, Shelly's launcher included, and the vendor apps and settings Panel Assistant changed, uninstalls the app, clears the panel's Repairs and then deletes its entry; you can no longer keep the panel in Home Assistant. If the panel has not allowed Home Assistant's ADB connection, the Repair asks it to first, and a removal that stops part way stays in Repairs until submitting it again finishes what is left.
- Rooted panels are looked after over their own connection. Updates, repairs and removal on a rooted panel no longer need network ADB, and the 1.0.0 panel app switches network ADB off on a rooted panel once it is connected. Installing the app, and panels without root, still use network ADB.
- The USB installer does more. It opens from the Install using USB step's own button, using the copy published with this Panel Assistant release, shows the app version before it starts, and tells you when another app is using the panel's USB connection. Like a network install, it adds the panel to Panel Assistant and switches network debugging on so Panel Assistant can update the panel without the cable. Plugging in a panel that already has the app installs nothing and simply gives Panel Assistant its way back to it.
- The version list for installs and updates comes from the project website, with GitHub as the fallback. Panel Assistant still verifies the build before installing it, and the install list offers only builds from the channel Panel Assistant itself is on.
- Panels other apps know are offered when Panel Assistant starts and when you add a panel. Panel Assistant no longer starts on every device that joins your network: its DHCP discovery is removed. Panels the Companion app, Fully Kiosk, ESPHome or the Shelly integration already know are listed under Settings, Devices & services, Discovered when Home Assistant starts and when you open Add integration for Panel Assistant, and a panel that announces itself in more than one way shows once.
- Names and Areas stay in step. Renaming a panel's device or moving it to another Area in Home Assistant reaches the panel within seconds, and renaming the panel renames its device card. The panel still decides which Area it uses, so an Area chosen on the panel itself is kept. Repairs and setup dialogs use the device's name too.
- The sidebar remembers where you were. Switching panels keeps the tab you are viewing, a browser reload reopens the same panel and tab, Back from a panel's device page returns to it, and your Basic or Advanced view, Descriptions choice and setting filter stay with you.
- The Assist entity follows the panel's voice assistant. While a panel's voice assistant is off, its Assist satellite entity is disabled instead of showing as unavailable, and enabling the entity turns voice on again. An entity you disabled yourself is left alone.
- Panel Assistant follows a panel whose web page moves. With the 1.0.0 panel app, which moves its local page off port 8888 when another app already uses it, Panel Assistant uses the port the panel reports.
Fixed
- Panel cameras work on Home Assistant 2026.11. A panel's camera, which is off until you turn it on, is no longer left out with an error when Home Assistant starts, and reloading or removing a panel no longer fails on it.
- Installs and updates no longer stall on some rooted panels. This applies over the network and with the USB installer.
- A panel signed in as a local-only user is given only local addresses. It is no longer given your external or Home Assistant Cloud address, so it cannot fall back to a route Home Assistant refuses.
- Synchronised speech is sturdier. Announcements and spoken replies fall back to playing on each panel independently when preparing synchronised speech takes too long, recover, with the 1.0.0 panel app, when the audio connection closes without replaying interrupted speech, and keep a busy panel in step with the others instead of dropping it.
- A panel no longer waits on its "Learning" screen indefinitely. With the 1.0.0 panel app, a panel that cannot finish preparing its entity filter in time shows its dashboard unfiltered, and a Repair says so until the panel filters again.
- Panel sensors and details are shown accurately. A sensor the panel hides becomes unavailable straight away, and a sensor with no reading shows as unknown together with the panel's reason, instead of a stale value.
- Reboot no longer reports an error when it works. A panel that drops its connection after taking the reboot now counts as rebooting.
- Slow diagnostics no longer fail a health check. A healthy panel whose optional diagnostics answer slowly is no longer reported as failing.