Home Assistant is renaming its cloud service to Home Assistant Link to distance itself from the term "cloud," which founder Paulus Schoutsen says big tech has ruined. The rebrand is mostly symbolic; the $6.50/month service still provides remote access and cloud-dependent features while maintaining local control and encrypted data that Link operators cannot access. The move is part of a broader strategy to make Home Assistant more mainstream by simplifying setup and adding AI capabilities.
LocalThings is a Home Assistant integration that enables local network control of Samsung SmartThings appliances without cloud connectivity, using OCF and CoAP protocols to communicate directly with devices and support push updates plus polling every 30 seconds.