One of the downsides of Home Assistant is that, because it can do so much, it's all too easy to completely miss some of the most useful features. You may never have ventured into the "Developer tools" section, for example. If so, you're missing out, as it holds some incredibly useful tools.

This year, I've been trying to purge subscriptions that I don't really need. I've managed to replace a lot of my paid subscriptions with free alternatives that can do the same job. I've kept hold of my Home Assistant Cloud subscription, however, and there are plenty of good reasons why.

There are several reasons why you might prefer using web apps over desktop apps. You don't need to install anything, you can access the apps from anywhere, and it doesn't matter which operating system you're using. Many web apps offer a very similar experience to the desktop versions, but here are some desktop apps that are simply better.

The introduction of Spotify Wrapped back in 2016 made the concept of an end-of-year app-usage review go viral. Since then, many other apps have jumped on the bandwagon. One app that doesn't have its own "Wrapped" yet is ChatGPT. Thanks to a genius idea posted on LinkedIn, I got ChatGPT to create my own ChatGPT Wrapped 2025, and it's incredibly easy to do.

A few weeks ago, my internet went down. Thankfully, my mobile internet was still working, so I was able to use my phone as a hotspot. Looking online, however, I found that many people who used the same provider for both their broadband and mobile internet had lost access to both and could not get online at all. There's always a risk that this could happen, but the good news is that an internet outage doesn't have to leave you offline.

Home Assistant has its own built-in voice assistant called Assist. I use Home Assistant Cloud to handle the natural language processing, and Assist can work well for controlling devices, querying the state of entities, or playing media. It's far from perfect, but there are some things you can do to improve how well Assist understands what you're asking.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Most of my friends and relatives know that I'm a self-confessed geek and will often buy me tech gifts that they're sure I'll love. Sometimes, however, they would have been better off saving their money. If you're looking to buy something for a tech lover, please don't get them these gifts.

Streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music give you access to hundreds of millions of songs, but they're quite restrictive in how you can use them. They may not include some of the music you want to listen to, and you may not be able to play those streaming services through some of your speakers. Music Assistant allows you to play music from a wide range of sources on almost any speaker in your home.

I've always struggled to concentrate on work. When I should be working, my mind starts to wander, or I end up falling down a tech rabbit hole trying to fix something that takes far longer than I expect. I've tried Pomodoro timer apps, but they never worked for me, so I decided to build my own using Home Assistant.

Smart plugs are among the most useful smart home devices you can buy. You can use a smart plug to turn almost any electrical device into a smart device that can be turned on and off remotely. With the right automations, however, smart plugs can offer something even more valuable: peace of mind.

Home Assistant is, in my opinion, the best smart home software available. It's free, open-source, privacy-focused, works with a huge number of devices, and can make your smart home do almost anything you can think of. Despite all that, Home Assistant definitely has its faor share of problems.

The team behind Home Assistant is best known for its incredible free and open-source smart home software, but the same team has also produced some hardware products. Nabu Casa, the commercial company set up by the creators of Home Assistant, currently sells a handful of products, including a dedicated Home Assistant hub and a prototype of a local smart speaker.

Home Assistant includes a large number of native integrations that can do everything from allowing you to connect specific smart home devices to tracking daylight hours from sunrise to sunset, so your lighting automations know when to turn on and off. Here are some lesser-known Home Assistant integrations that are worth exploring if you're not already using them.