Three days after the launch of the Aqara Hub M3 with Matter and Thread support, Aqara announced through their socials the Aqara Hub M3 will now support the connection of third-party devices with Matter for several product types, regardless the brand. This was previously limited to specific products from only three brands.
New Device Types
Based on the feedback of users in the last few days, Aqara decided to fully unlock support for third party devices with Matter. The following device types should now be supported by the Aqara Hub M3:
- Contact Sensors
- Occupancy Sensors
- Light Sensors
- Light Wall Switches
- Dimmer Wall Switches
- Thermostats
- Smart Plugs
- Matter Bridges
As not all third-party devices have been tested by Aqara, there could still be some issues with specific devices. The functionality to add Matter devices to the Aqara Hub is currently still in beta. Still, this update does unlock a lot new possibilities for this hub, making this hub a lot more interesting. Until this update, only some products from Philips Hue, Leviton and Google Nest were supported.
Work in progress
First tests on our side does show improved support for third party devices, but still not everything works as expected. We were able to connect a Matter over WiFi based Smart Plug to the Aqara Hub M3. We also tried to add the SwitchBot Hub 2 with Matter, but we were unable to do so. Wall switches from Philips Hue are shown in the Aqara app, but we were not able to set up an automation with these devices. For now, this means we only see a log of presses for the wall switches and we’re not able to e.g. choose which device turns on using these switches. Given the quick follow-up from Aqara regarding Matter support for third-party devices, we expect they will keep working on improvements for the matter functionality of the Aqara Hub M3.
The Aqara Hub M3 is available since May 8th on Amazon for $129,99/€129,99/£129,99.
