Aqara’s M3 Integrates All Intelligent Technology Protocols Into One Hub
The Aqara M3 Hub ($129.99) has been working for me for a few months now, as it was a requirement for the new Aqara ceiling light that I reviewed last month. Aqara is positioning the M3 as part of a new class of dedicated hubs that can act as multi-hubs—meaning they can be the only hub in your home and the smart home app on your phone. Competing with multi-hub giants like Google, Alexa, SmartThings, and Apple HomeKit is an ambitious goal, especially since, like other brand-specific hubs, integrations don’t yet support that goal. You can add almost anything to Google or Alexa, either through those apps themselves or through integrations like IFTTT or Zapier.
However, for now, the M3 is designed for Aqara products and can support any other Matter-enabled device. Even though many devices come with Matter these days, there are still some disadvantages to using Matter rather than the device’s own app, so giving up other apps may not be an ideal option. It probably doesn’t matter whether I recommend the M3 or not – it’s practically required for some Aqara devices. However, I would advise against trying to make it your multihub.
All wireless protocols are packaged in M3
The M3 does its best to be everything to everyone, including all wireless protocols: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Matter, Thread (as an edge router), infrared and Power over Ethernet under the hood. (The only standard I haven’t used. I haven’t seen Z-wave, which is an older standard on par with Zigbee.) The hub is powered via USB-C or PoE, giving you a little more flexibility than most hubs that are only powered by USB. The hub is a simple five-by-five-inch square puck that can be wall-mounted or hidden with all the other hubs you already have. (I can’t be the only person who has a hub for hubs hidden somewhere.) Since I have an Aqara G3 hub, I was a little disappointed with the puck as it was just a hub without any additional features. I’ve been really fascinated by brands that have figured out how to make hubs useful and make you want to hide them instead of hiding them. By comparison, the G3 ($109.99) is a smart indoor security camera with pan/tilt capabilities (with a design that some say resembles a cat), and SwitchBot has turned its Hub 2 ($69.99) in clock, thermometer and hygrometer. Additionally, the G3 and Hub 2 were cheaper than the dedicated M3. The only thing the M3 comes close to is the ability to act as an alarm clock or announce notifications through the speaker.
One aspect of all the protocols supported here is the built-in IR transmitter – this means the M3 can support heat pumps, air conditioners and more. Support is already built into the hub app to guide you through setup with this feature, and I was impressed that I could control most aspects of my air conditioner or heater through the app. I would still leave the native app for fine-tuning, but I could make do with the functionality of the Aqara M3, which meant I could include those devices in the automation. I haven’t seen any other hub with this feature.
Connect Matter devices to other ecosystems
Like other brand-specific hubs, you can connect the Aqara hub to your Google Home, Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and any other major ecosystem. You’re limited to four additional ecosystems, which probably won’t limit anyone any time soon, and won’t allow access to IR-connected devices through Materia only. This allows you to access connected devices from another ecosystem, such as Google or Alexa. So if you connect a sensor via Matter to an M3 hub, you can then connect the M3 to Google Home and see that sensor in Google Home. It’s as if you were creating a solar system, and the Akara hub and all the devices on it were the planet. The foreseeable problem is this: If you’ve been having trouble with devices in your hub disconnecting intermittently, you know you need to move to a native app to fix the problem. So now you’ve added another step because you need to go through Google Home, Aqara and the native app that you’ll probably have to keep on your phone in cases like this. Also, keep in mind that you only get limited features for devices connected through Matter, and Matter doesn’t support all platforms yet. You can turn the lights on and off, but you can’t customize the fine-grained settings that might be available in the native app. I have several of these hubs at home: the Brilliant wall hub, SmartThings itself, and SwitchBot, all of which can be linked to devices via Matter, but what’s the point of that if you have Google Home or Apple HomeKit? If you have a huge number of Aqara devices, this might make sense – or if you’re a Home Assistant user, where Matter is going to bring everything into your Home Assistant interface.
M3 supports hub clustering.
If this concept is new to you, it is new to me too. Simply put, if you have previous hubs for Aqara products, this new M3 hub will network them all and become the leader of that network. It will try to take over all the automation and actions assigned to previous hubs, and by keeping those previous hubs, you create a more powerful network, so you don’t necessarily have to keep your hub next to the Aqara product – they will be scattered. out. This is an interesting concept because I want to get rid of hubs rather than keep them to myself. I usually replace the previous hub with an updated one. Again, if you could use Aqara as a single multihub, it would be a useful feature, working a bit like mesh Wi-Fi. What’s even more impressive is that the help offered through the app to set up this feature really held my hand, explaining each step and what would happen specifically with my devices. This process transfers data from the original hubs and then resets it to become part of the network.
Bottom line: It has promising hardware.
In full transparency, I don’t like brand-specific hubs because they tend to work best with that brand’s devices, and I’m not a big fan (my devices are from hundreds of different brands). It makes sense to make a hub with a voice assistant and a bunch of integrations with my main multihub. However, I was impressed by the M3 not only on its own, but also because it points to Aqara moving forward – they are trying to be a competitive player in the smart space. While Aqara produces a variety of devices, the heart of all work is sensors , which are ultimately the basis for any products they make. If you use a lot of their sensors as triggers for automation, then it certainly makes sense to use an Aqara hub for that automation. While Aqara has packed a lot into its little hardware puck, I’d still like to see additional functionality that would allow it to remain exposed rather than hidden—and at a more competitive price. That said, if you need to buy a hub to make the Aqara device work, I wouldn’t be upset about the cost. I think the future is bright for equipment like the M3 hub.