What changed
Home Assistant is renaming its cloud service from Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link. Founder Paulus Schoutsen said the company is rejecting the “cloud” label because, in his words, “Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out.”
The announcement was reported on October 2, 2026. The name changes; the service itself remains described only through its current name and proposed replacement.
Why it matters
This is a statement about positioning, not yet a change to the product. There is no reported shift in hosting, pricing, technology or how Home Assistant Link works.
That distinction matters. “Cloud” has become shorthand for services run on someone else’s infrastructure, but it also carries baggage: dependence on large platforms, opaque control and recurring subscriptions. Home Assistant is choosing a name that signals distance from that image, even though the practical details remain unchanged for now.
The useful test comes next. If the company later changes how the service is hosted, priced or connected to users’ homes, “Link” will mean more than a rebrand. Until then, it is a pointed message about what Home Assistant wants its cloud service to represent.
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