Aqara joins Works with Home Assistant

Another “works for me”. :wink: Yes, the matter server is up and running and if I add the M3 hub as a Matter device in HA, it’s visible in the Matter integration. The M3 hub and also my Homepod Mini are showing up as Thread Border routers.

Maybe Zigbee Devices attached to the Hub could be exposed. I didn’t test this. But Matter devices are not exposed, maybe because they are not recognized as child devices in the Aquara Hub.

Great news. Does this also mean that the Aqara Camera G3 will finally have easy integration?

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Is that a matter device?

Matter standard current version still doesn’t support cameras or home security systems. Some kind of camera support as a new Matter device type in the future is however on Matter standard roadmap. See:

The Connectivity Standards Alliance says support for security cameras, garage door controllers, ambient motion and presence sensors, Wi-Fi routers, and access points are all on its roadmap. It is also working on more features for existing device types.

Device types supported by Matter

As of August 2024, the Matter spec supports the following device types:

Implemented

These device types are in the Matter spec and are currently supported by some or all Matter-compatible platforms.

  • Air purifiers
  • Air quality sensors
  • Blinds and shades
  • Bridges (for bridging other protocols, such as Zigbee)
  • Door locks
  • Fans
  • Light bulbs and light switches (including smart buttons)
  • Plugs and outlets
  • Robot vacuums
  • Room air conditioners (i.e., window units)
  • Safety and security sensors (motion, contact)
  • Televisions and media devices
  • Thermostats and other HVAC controllers

Announced

These device types have been added to the Matter spec but are not currently supported by any platforms and / or there are no available products to buy in these categories.

  • Refrigerators / Freezers
  • Washing machines
  • Water management devices — leak and frost detectors, rain sensors, controllable valves
  • Smoke and CO alarms
  • Microwave ovens
  • Dryers
  • Dishwashers
  • Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment

Matter supports basic functions for most device types, which means that whether you use a gadget in Apple Home or Amazon Alexa, you’ll have the same controls. Smart home platforms can add features on top of Matter, plus you may need to use the manufacturer’s app for features not supported by Matter — such as setting dynamic lighting scenes for smart lights, mapping for robot vacuums, and PINs for smart locks.

I just figured out the real benefit of Aqara joining the WWHA programme.

It isn’t that HA users will get better devices from Aqara or know what to expect from an Aqara device, although this may happen to some small degree.

No, the true benefit is that the many, many people buying an Aqara device, to work with say Alexa or Google, will see Home Assistant on the packaging - and may get curious. In turn, more people will get into Home Assistant and more manufactures will take HA seriously.

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You have got Home Assistant up there with the big 4: Samsung, Google, Amazon and Fruit salad. If that isn’t something that should help push the distribution of HA then I don’t know.

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Does it mean Aqara U200 is going to show which user locked/unlocked the door or how it was locked/unlocked (manual, keypad, app etc)?

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Yes, that is something we want to implement indeed. problem is that HA itself has no definition of user/lock management at all so we first have to fix that in order to fix it for Matter (and Z-wave)

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@Hedda in response to your list of supported device types. HA actually supports all new device types for Matter 1.3 already but we do not yet have full platform coverage. So for instance you can only partially control these devices until we extend our support, which is also somewhat depending on manufacturers actually sending devices to us (or diagnostics dump so we can mock it).

We try to be the ecosystem that is most ahead of the game in terms of devicetype support and (some) manufacturers are actually working closely with us to add support for new device types.

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Hello.

I just started with HA but was missing guide to proper integration of Aqara hub and devices… (Aqara hub M2 EU)

  1. In Aqara app (I use Iphone) - DEVICES - Aqara hub M2 - Settings - Expose to Matter. You will be given QR code and a code of 4+3+4 digits

  2. In Home Assistant app - New Integration - Matter - NEW - QR + code : AND IT WORKS and adds ALL m devices to HA:

  • Air quality sensors
  • Blinds and shades
  • Light bulbs and light switches (including smart buttons)
  • Plugs and outlets

:wink:

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A quick fix would be that the U200 lock sent a notification like “lock was unlocked by keypad operation user1” (Danalock does it) and we can parse the notification in HA to use it for automation. Anyway, how much time does it take to implement a user management system in HA?

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On that topic I hope Home Assistent core developers conaider this related feature request that is asking for unified locks user management + tracking which users locked/unlocked a lock and when + how was locking done (manual from inside, outside keypad, integration service, or Home Assistant Companion, etc.) → Locks user management + tracking which users locked/unlocked a lock and when + how was locking done (manual from inside, outside keypad, integration service, or Home Assistant Companion, etc.)?

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@GuySie the blog post says you are currently testing the U300 lock. It’s now up for preorder on Aqara’s sites, I saw the installation video and was happy to see a section on pairing with Home Assistant but from the video it only looked like it exposed lock / unlock status. No user IDs, active PIN codes, passage mode etc etc. can you let us know how testing has been going and what entities it exposes?

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Again the existing user manager in Home Assistant does not yet have locks and PIN management, see feature request → Locks user management + tracking which users locked/unlocked a lock and when + how was locking done (manual from inside, outside keypad, integration service, or Home Assistant Companion, etc.)?

@GuySie Have you at Nabu Casa given any input and ideas to Aqara specifically in regards to them also supporting the Home Assistant’s built-in native Zigbee gateway integration (i.e. ZHA integration)?

Have you gotten any feedback from Aqara that they are also interested in certifying any of their Zigbee devices to allow them to use the “Works via Zigbee with Home Assistant” badge for marketing?

image

Noted that their announcement does not actually specifically mention the ZHA integration, but instead only focusing on ther support for Matter, however it does indirectly mention Zigbee devices but only in reference to them being used via their Matter Bridge, so not any interest in HA’s ZHA integration?

Even though the current “Works with Home Assistant” partnership rules state that manufacturers are exempt from the duty of supporting and maintaining Home Assistant’s built-in native Zigbee gateway integration (i.e. the ZHA integration) I would imagine that it should be in Aqara’s best interest to make their all their newer Zigbee devices work out-of-the-box via the ZHA integration with full feature-parity compared to when the same Zigbee device is used via their own proprietary Zigbee gateways (e.g. their official Aqara Hub series).

That it, it would be great if Aqara begins to actively contribute to at least custom ZHA Device Handlers (also known as zha-quirks) for Aqara’s Zigbee devices to tweak each device customization to make it the best possible user expeience for all users of the g Home Assistant’s built-in native ZHA integration:

Even more awesome if they would also start to provide Zigbee OTA (Over-The-Air) firmware image and/or OTAU provider(s) for ZHA:

Aqara already offers a huge collection of native Zigbee devices that all more or less work with the ZHA integration, but support in ZHA for each of Aqara’s Zigbee devices could always be improved and optimized , so so it would be very cool if could be said that Aqara officially supported ZHA.

As I understand it, the general idea with the “Works with Home Assistant” program is that if a manufacturer partnering with the Open Home Foundation also wants to use the “Works via Zigbee with Home Assistant” badge in the future for marketing devices then they are directly responsible to somehow maintaining the integrity of how their own devices work with the ZHA integration?

Noting that the “Works with Home Assistant” program’s guidelines specification were recently changed from getting an approval per brand to require that each and every device needs to be certified by Nabu Casa separately if the manufacturer wants to use the “Works via Zigbee with Home Assistant” badge to market that device:

As such I would expect that even if Aqara in interesting in supporting the ZHA integration and decide to to use those “Works via Zigbee with Home Assistant” badges then we can probably expect them to only focus on newest and/or upcoming devices that they still manufacture and sell for them to get return on their investments (at least if their marketing team have anything to say about it):