Arduino Cloud's Over-the-Air Update Feature Now Supports Your Espressif ESP32-Based Devices Too

Arduino has announced a new feature for its cloud users: the ability to update Espressif ESP32-based devices over-the-air, from both the Arduino IoT Cloud and the Arduino Web Editor — though it describes the initial support as "experimental."

"Arduino is committed to making all the Arduino Cloud features available to all the supported hardware," the Arduino team explains in its latest announcement, "and as a result of this effort, ESP32 family of chipsets now support over-the-air (OTA) updates. Due to their low price, integration and high performance, ESP32-based devices are among the most widely used ones for hobbyists and developers who want to create their small home appliances."

While third-party development boards based on Espressif's popular ESP32 family of systems-on-chips (SoCs) have long been supported by Arduino cores, the update functionality tying them into the Arduino Cloud is new. Once registered as a device in the Arduino IoT Cloud, ESP32 devices can be flashed remotely — as long as they've got a Wi-Fi connection to the internet, they'll receive the update and reboot automatically.

"Over-the-air updates have been traditionally constrained only to Arduino boards and this feature has been widely adopted by users," the Arduino team explains. "Now, this support is extended to ESP32 boards. This unifies the experience across the most popular platforms."

There is, however, one small catch: while the company claims to have tested the update functionality on "the most popular" ESP32 development boards, it admits that "there could be some limitations on some of the untested [boards]" — going so far as to describe the functionality as an "experimental feature" on which it is actively soliciting feedback.

Those with a suitable ESP32-based development board and an Arduino Cloud account can get started with the new feature now by following the official tutorial.