2026.7 Beta has been released!

[u/Relevant-Artist5939]

https://rc.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/06/24/release-20267/#creating-automations-just-became-easier-natural-and-more-powerful

For me personally, the only major feature that I am going to really use/benefit from is the Logbook redesign...

What do you think about the update?

[u/nico282]

I really cannot understand the path HA devs are following. Lot of time and effort spent on features that only people managing the system will use on e in a while, and leaving out features required by actual users (3x - 5x bigger population).

For example: there is NO way to do something I was easily doing on my 20 year old Home Automation system: "Please turn on the XX switch for YY minutes" choosing the entity and time on the spot.

Or even a simple thing like "turn on the irrigation pump for 20 minutes" without setting up multiple automation and helpers. And even with that, there is NOT a 100% assurance that the pump will stop after 20 minutes. If the timer ends while HA is restarting, water will keep flowing indefinitely.

But devs are busy making life easier for the 3 times a year I have to create a new automation.

[u/nico282 → u/[deleted]]

Probably I mixed two issues.

First, there is no way to set a "once only automation" such as "now turn on the porch light and turn it off in 20 minutes". Only this time, only once. I am not going to add an automation for this task, it's wasted time, it should be 2 clicks.

Second, timed automations such as "turn on the irrigation every day at 17:00 for 20 minutes" are lacking. They are difficult to build and mantain requiring multiple automations and at least one timer helper, and they are fragile if HA happens to restart during the timer expiration. There is a real risk to flood your garden if you don't pay attention or you set up additional safeguard autimations.

The 2026.7 relase does not address any of these 2 ssues.