2024.11.0

Aqara joins Works with Home Assistant

Guy Sie Guy Sie Comments
Aqara joins Works with Home Assistant

We’re excited to announce that Aqara is bringing several of their devices to our Works with Home Assistant program. We know that Aqara is a brand that many in the community like to recommend for its solid options for Zigbee and Matter.

This will be the first partner to join since our recent update to the program, meaning it is the first to join certifying specific devices, making it much easier to see what will give you the best experience in Home Assistant. It will also be the first partner to use our “Works via Matter with Home Assistant” badge, giving some great options to use with Home Assistant’s industry-leading Matter support.

Matter materializes

Aqara has been an early adopter of Matter, and many of its new products support the standard, which is great for connecting to Home Assistant. Matter allows for local control by directly connecting devices to Home Assistant, keeping your smart home data in your home. Matter is a completely local IP-based protocol that leverages your existing Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks, but it can also use Thread, which many Aqara devices take advantage of. Thread devices can be directly connected to Home Assistant using a Connect ZBT-1, or can be connected to Home Assistant via an existing hub (Thread Border Router) you may already have from another smart home ecosystem, including the Aqara Hub M3.

One superpower of Matter compared to other standards is being able to control these devices with multiple different ecosystems simultaneously. For instance, an Aqara lock could be unlocked with a Home Assistant automation and then locked with a voice command directed to an Apple Homepod.

Devices joining the program

Aqara has had the following three devices Works with Home Assistant certified. All of which can be directly connected to Home Assistant without an account.

We’re also testing the yet-to-be-launched Smart Lock U300, which we hope to see added soon.

We have also certified a hub that makes it easy to connect an existing Aqara-based smart home to Home Assistant using Matter.

  • Hub M3 - It has many functions, but we have certified it as a Matter Bridge. This means you can use it to bridge your existing Aqara Zigbee devices to Matter. It can also act as a Thread Border Router for Home Assistant.

If you have some Aqara products that are not listed above, rest assured that they will continue to work as they always have. The program is a way to clearly indicate which devices provide the best experience with Home Assistant. We’ve ensured this by testing these devices’ compatibility ourselves. We also get assurances from the brand that they will provide responsive support and maintenance, while being a positive brand in the Home Assistant community.

Works with Home Assistant is now run by the non-profit Open Home Foundation, which means it is not a profit-making endeavor. It is about encouraging brands to go above and beyond in the Home Assistant community, and we’re excited to have Aqara join.

When shopping for devices to connect to your home, we recommend first looking at our Works with Home Assistant partner’s products. These products always prioritize long-term support and local control.