Hi! The November release of Home Assistant, version 2024.11, brings some exciting new features! The Sections Dashboard view is officially out of experimental mode, and WebRTC integration speeds up low-latency cameras. Let’s dive into what’s new!
⭐⭐⭐ NOTE: ⭐⭐⭐
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Ed
Before we get started, I want to mention that this video is based on the beta version of Home Assistant 2024.11. While it’s possible there may be a few small changes in the final release, it usually doesn’t differ much. The official release of version 2024.11 is scheduled for the first Wednesday of November, so you’ll be able to install it then.
Sections!
The sections view type dashboard is now officially not experimental anymore. So, if you’ve been waiting for the stable version of the Sections view before updating your dashboard, now’s the time! With version 2024.11, you can also convert your old dashboard to the Sections view. All the cards from your previous setup will be loaded into a single “Imported Cards” section, which you can then organize into different sections as you like. These imported cards will only appear in Edit mode, allowing you to rebuild your dashboard at your own pace.
Additionally, you can now set the size of the cards with even greater precision. By enabling precise mode, you’ll have three times as many options for adjusting the width and height of cards within a section. Now, I can finally rebuild my dashboard entirely with standard Home Assistant functionality, making it responsive. I’m already working on it, and once it’s complete, I’ll show you how I did it.
WebRTC
Did you also get frustrated with the slow video stream from your cameras in Home Assistant? There was already a solution for this, which I explained in a previous video. Well, that video is now obsolete, because as of Home Assistant 2024.11, WebRTC is built into Home Assistant by default. This means your video streams will be much faster. Note that sometimes it’s not possible to establish a direct connection between the client and the camera. In such cases, the stream has to be routed through an external server. If you’re using Home Assistant Cloud via Nabu Casa, this is handled automatically for you. Yet another reason to support the developers by getting a Nabu Casa account!
Integrations
Of course, new integrations have been implemented again in this release. You can find them in this list.
The Local File integration can now be set up from the UI. I use this to create a camera entity that shows a snapshot of my front door camera on my phone when someone rings the doorbell. You can view how I did this in this tutorial.
Other Noteworthy Changes
These were not all the changes for this release. There are more changes worth mentioning. You can find them in this list.
Backward-incompatible Changes
As with every release, some changes may not be compatible with previous versions of Home Assistant. Be sure to review this list carefully before upgrading to avoid any unexpected issues.
Links to the release notes and a full list of changes can be found in the video description.
That wraps up this summary of the Home Assistant 2024.11 November release. I hope you found it useful! If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting the channel with a small monthly contribution—it makes a big difference. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has already contributed. Your support makes this work possible. Thank you all!
And don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t done so yet. I’ll see you soon in my next video!
Bye Bye!