Homematic IP HCU opens to partner plugins on 27 October 2026

From 27 October 2026, eQ-3 opens the Homematic IP Home Control Unit (HCU) to third-party extensions. The update that day introduces what eQ-3 calls partner plugins. If you currently run another platform such as Home Assistant next to the HCU to bring in foreign devices, this gives you an official route directly on the controller. Whether it is any good depends on which vendors join, and that is open today.

For comparison: Home Assistant is the platform the mobiFlip author says he now relies on most. We found no freely licensed Homematic IP logo. (Quelle: Simple Icons, file homeassistant.svg (CC0))

Three categories

SmarthomeAssistent and mobiFlip describe the same three kinds of extension on the HCU:

Category	Built by	Support from eQ-3
Homematic IP plugins	eQ-3 itself	no restriction mentioned
Partner plugins	selected third parties, after review	yes, for the Homematic IP installation
Own plugins in developer mode	users and system integrators	no

The existing Philips Hue and EEBUS modules belong to the first group. SmarthomeAssistent adds that the EEBUS integration recently gained functions to limit power draw and feed-in. From the update on, both are listed as Homematic IP plugins.

Operation and distribution

According to eQ-3, approved third-party extensions run in separate containers so the core system stays protected. Each plugin can be enabled, updated and deleted on its own. They are obtained through a marketplace in HCUweb, the controller's browser interface. eQ-3 has planned a certification process for development and publication, and its terms for developers and vendors cover review and distribution.

For integrators the container design is the interesting part. A faulty plugin should not drag the controller down, and updating one plugin leaves the others alone. That is a state you normally have to build yourself, with some effort, when you run custom code on a controller. So far it rests on eQ-3's statement alone, and a test with a real partner plugin is still to come.

Developer mode

Self-built integrations stay possible. For that the HCU has to be switched into developer mode, and eQ-3 provides the interfaces through its Connect API and developer documentation, which is also on GitHub. The price sits in the fine print: an HCU in developer mode gets no technical support from eQ-3. To return to normal operation you need a factory reset or a backup restored from before the switch.

The last three steps are as SmarthomeAssistent reports them. The first step is our conclusion from the way back. (Quelle: SmarthomeAssistent, 6 October 2026)

A simple rule follows for anyone running an HCU in production at home or for customers: custom plugins belong on a second controller, not on the one that runs the building services. That is our own conclusion from the way back; neither source says it.

What stays open

eQ-3 has named neither launch partners nor costs. Whether partner plugins are free, whether subscriptions follow and which vendors pass the review is unknown. Both reports rest on eQ-3's statements. There is no independent test, and we did not retrieve eQ-3's own pages.

For planning, that means: look at which partners show up in the marketplace after 27 October, then decide whether a foreign integration on the HCU beats the bridge you already run. The mobiFlip author calls the opening an important step, because the HCU could become much more versatile without eQ-3 having to build every integration itself. Which vendors actually join is, in his words, the open question. A look at the marketplace after 27 October will answer part of it.