Apollo joins the Works With Home Assistant Program

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Apollo Automation has joined the Works with Home Assistant program. Certifying three of their newest devices, including their community favorite presence and air quality multisensors, giving users the best possible experience when using these devices with Home Assistant.

Notably, these are the first ESPHome-based devices to receive Works with Home Assistant certification. Apollo is one of the first movers in an important trend that we’re very excited about: Home Assistant community members turning their open projects into viable businesses that support a thriving Open Home ecosystem.

Background

Apollo Automation is a growing family-run business rooted in the Home Assistant and ESPHome communities. And yes, they’re named after their German Shepherd, Apollo 🐕.

Apollo Automation is built by and for the Home Assistant community. We believe in open smart home technology that gives users control, privacy, and flexibility. Joining the Works With Home Assistant program is a natural step for us, ensuring our devices integrate seamlessly while supporting the ecosystem we love. Home Assistant allows users to create powerful smart homes, and we are excited to contribute by making high-quality, reliable hardware that enhances the experience for everyone.

- Justin Bunton, Co-Founder, Apollo Automation

Two years ago, they started sharing their designs for a new impressively small ESPHome-powered multisensor with the community. Getting feedback, sharing iterations, and working collaboratively, they turned that sensor into a full-fledged product, which was built to work with Home Assistant. They have continued this open, community-first approach and have now built several even more refined multisensors.

A multisensor for ants? 🐜

Home Assistant is the only true smart home platform because it gives everyone full control to build and create. ESPHome is the ultimate smart device platform, and it is fostering an entirely new ecosystem of Open Home projects. ESPHome works fully locally, and it’s a modder’s paradise, allowing users to build DIY smart home devices (check out the getting started with ESPHome guide).

Creators can also use it to build pre-built, plug-and-play products that give users a really seamless experience. With devices being discovered and easily added to your Wi-Fi network and Home Assistant, along with a one-click update within Home Assistant.

ESPHome and Home Assistant allows anyone to turn their passion for building cool things into a career, and the things they build help support a more vibrant Open Home. Apollo is an exciting new partner for the Works with Home Assistant program and should serve as an inspiration to all aspiring makers in our community.

Devices

Works with Home Assistant differs from other certification programs as products are rigorously tested in-house to ensure they work seamlessly out of the box. Any company joining also commits to providing long-term support and firmware updates, while being a positive force in the Home Assistant community. Works with Home Assistant is operated by the Open Home Foundation, and it is the support of Home Assistant Cloud subscribers that funds this work.

Apollo has chosen first to certify three products, which include:

We anticipate that Apollo will bring more of their lineup into the program, and we are excited to see their new innovations going forward! This is just the start of a year of many new Works with Home Assistant announcements, so please stay tuned!

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2025/02/27/apollo-joins-wwha
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Apollo looks like a great new company and I’m excited to see the “Works with Home Assistant” program grow. Can you please publish a full list of all certified devices? I’m seeing a number of listings online with the “Works with Home Assistant” badge and I don’t have any way to know if these are legitimate certified devices or just opportunistic sellers putting the label on their products.

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It looks like the devices were accidentally left off this community forum blog post. (If not sorry and please remove them) Here they are!

Apollo has chosen first to certify three products, which include:

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Best,
Justin

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For the sake of transparency, how about publishing the certification reports? It would probably be helpful for people to look up if their specific want was certified, for example, instead of having to hear something like “Sorry, our program only tests against HAOS on a Green or a Yellow”.

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We are happy to share with the community but is this directed towards us or Home Assistant? Which certification reports are you specifically referring to?

Best,
Justin

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Hey Justin, I thought I replied to the blog post, sorry for the confusion. :upside_down_face: It was a general thought that occured to me with regard to the whole program and this addressed at the HA/NC folks.

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Got it, just wanted to make sure. Let us know if you have any other questions!

Best,
Justin

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Great to see more ESPHome based things and awesome to see more Works with Home Assistant certified products, though you might reconsider faunting that ”Made in the USA” marketing so prevalently to other markets if also target audience outside the United States of America not be such a good marketing stratergy in the current political climate. That included using an United States Of America coin for scale reference (which for scale makes no sence for size reference outside of the U.S.). I would suggest tone all that down, just saying. Anyway, no offence meant as do really wish you and everyone making commercial ESPHome products the best of luck!

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I agree with the “Made in USA part”, but what are you seriously expecting them to do with the coin image? If they’re located in the US, do they go to a bank and say “Hey, lend me a Euro coin for a quick pic”?
Like your banana pic alludes to, it’s hard to show scale on a universally-familiar level besides using an (imperial & metric) ruler.

That aside, great job Apollo (good doggy)! Not just about the certification, but also the options you offer, especially when it comes to accessories. I might not particularly favour Wifi devices at this point in time, but if I ever change my mind, your company will be the first one I’ll look at.

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But it’s not a “Made in the USA” logo; it’s an “Assembled in USA” one. They’re acknowledging that the electronic components aren’t made by American Workers.

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We do appreciate the input, we ship internationally and have distributors in Europe, Australia, and Canada so our user base is very international.

Apollo has no political affiliation and we greatly appreciate our international partners and friends we’ve made. It has been pretty cool getting so meet so many people around the world and build friendships. While it is odd political times, we are very proud of employing people with livable wages in our local town. We’d love to eventually have a European office where we can employ and assemble there in the future as well since it is a significant market.

We do list measurements in mm in our product descriptions, the primary image is just supposed to be a quick visual to show how tiny the sensor is.

Happy to answer any questions or clarify things.

Thanks,
Trevor

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I appreciate your reply, but my comment was directed at Home Assistant. I was referring to suppliers on sites like Aliexpress and Amazon that are abusing the “Works with Home Assistant” badge. A list of all certified devices would help shoppers differentiate certified devices (like yours :slight_smile:) from sellers that are using the badge for random products without permission to boost sales.

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I do indeed recommend just using using some kind of ruler with both imperial and metric measurements for scale. My point was that most people have no reference how large coins are from any countries than their own so it is not good practice to use coin for scale at all.

If you want to use an object the suggest use more common objects, like example a can of Coka Cola or Red Bull, a drawing pin or pinhead, a standard pencil or pen, a paperclip, a keyboard, a CD/DVD, a credit card or points card, or just a hand holding it or a finger next to it.

Anyway, quick search for ” photo scale ruler” found these so there are for sure nice looking scale rulers to find, both physical products you can buy, and there are even free you can print on paper or 3D-print:

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At least half of those things come at different sizes in different countries (or even in the same country)… It’s really not that simple.

I think you are missing the point. The measurements are best simply written in the product description. The photos are not to give you this information, but to give you a better feeling of how big it is in reality.

But I get the sentiment, with the recent events at the White House I, too, find it a bit off-putting when the product is associating itself with the country. I know it’s not rational, but the feeling is there.

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Hey Tobias, great question. We are currently looking at putting some more information about the certification and testing process on the partner website. Thanks! Miranda

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Hi there! We are working on a full list as we speak. Thanks for flagging the link in your comment, always helpful when people highlight incorrect use so I can reach out to them.

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