1Home Digest September '26: AI, IFA & Smart Home News
September brought AI that programs homes and runs family calendars, a big acquisition in the smart home world, and a look at where the industry is heading after IFA. Let's get into it...
Josh.ai Wants to Turn Programming Hours into Minutes
Every integrator knows the feeling: the hardware is in, the client is happy, and then come the hours of programming. At CEDIA Expo 2026, Josh.ai introduced ProStudio, built for exactly that moment. Its new Automations builder turns plain-language intent into custom home programming, cutting the work "from hours to minutes".
Around it sits a practical toolkit: meta drivers for Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit and Matter, a new I/O box with IR, serial, relay and sensor inputs, and a long list of partner integrations. The builder is previewed for now, with availability planned later this year. It is a clear sign that AI is moving from the living room into the installer's toolbox.
Read about ProStudio at CEDIA Expo
Anker Wants a Brain for the Whole Home
Anker's MindBase is pitched as the brain of a home security system: a local box that keeps the intelligence in the house instead of in the cloud. It can take up to 48 TB of SSD storage, with an AI agent meant to handle automations and more.
Details are still thin and it is not expected until early next year, so this one is worth watching rather than judging. The direction, though, is hard to miss. Local AI boxes are becoming a category of their own.
Schneider Electric Makes a Move on Shelly
The smart relay hiding behind countless light switches may soon have a new owner. Schneider Electric plans a takeover offer for Shelly Group at €70 per share, valuing the company at around €1.2 billion. Shelly's founders, who hold roughly 57% between them, have backed the deal, and Shelly's board has welcomed it.
For Schneider, it is a way to combine its residential and retrofit portfolio with Shelly's software-led home energy platform. Shelly says it plans to keep its Bulgarian headquarters and team for at least three years after closing. The offer still needs to go through, with completion expected by the first quarter of 2027.
IKEA Brings Matter to Cabinet Lights
The lights inside wardrobes and kitchen cabinets have always been the quiet corner of the smart home. IKEA's new Dubbelkisel driver changes that: it replaces the Trådfri driver, connects to the Dirigera hub over Matter, and works with IKEA switches as well as non-IKEA Matter devices.
There is a catch. Early users report a noticeable delay, since commands now travel through a gateway, where the old driver responded instantly. At €18 and with a wider European rollout expected within weeks, it is a small upgrade with a familiar trade-off between openness and speed.
IFA 2026: The Smart Home Gets Quieter and More Reliable
Bumper cars, multilevel mazes and families with kids: IFA in Berlin has a character all of its own. Between the demos, one theme kept coming back: the smart home is growing up. Aqara is moving its new lights to Zigbee and Thread, Nanoleaf is adding a Philips Hue module so its lights can finally stop fighting with Wi-Fi, and Third Reality has a solar-powered Zigbee extender that reaches the far end of the garden.
The other story was AI that stays at home. Anker and UGREEN both showed local AI boxes you can talk to, while the Home Assistant booth proved that a useful dashboard can be built from a few dollars of ESPHome parts.
Google's CC Agent Starts Running the Family Calendar
Google Labs is taking its experimental CC agent from individuals to households. Up to six family members can share context, and CC gets its own verified Google account. Each morning it produces a shared "Your Day Ahead" brief, and it can manage calendars and tasks and fill in forms, while each member decides what they share.
It is US-only, for adults with personal Google accounts, and behind a waitlist. Still, it is an early look at an AI that sits between family members rather than serving one person.
UniFi Design Center 2026 Gets a Serious Upgrade
Ubiquiti's free planning tool now covers much more of a network project: high availability with shadow mode and MC-LAG, a new wired client category, Wi-Fi 7 and MLO modelling, and a client experience simulator. You can draw walls, place access points, cameras and door readers, route cables, estimate cable lengths, build the rack and preview it all in 3D across multiple floors.
For anyone who plans networks before installing them, this walkthrough from Mac Telecom Networks is a practical tour of everything that changed.
Tarken Lets Your Window Check the Air
Tarken replaces a standard tilt-and-turn window handle with a smart one that also measures CO₂, temperature and humidity. It supports Matter over Thread, needs no drilling or wiring, and runs for up to about a year per charge via USB-C and a solar panel. Made in Europe, it costs €269.
The idea is neat: the sensor that notices stale air is the same device that can open the window. At the time of writing, the store listed it as sold out.
That's September done.
Thanks for reading along, see you next month!