Background: My ultimate goal with my smart home setup is that I should be able to control everything via the Apple Home app/ecosystem. Over the past decade, I have methodically purged every smart home device that can’t be connected to Apple Home (HomeKit). As anyone on the forum already knows, Aqara’s devices are generally fantastic in this regard.
I now use the following Aqara products, with more to come, I’m sure:
-G410 Doorbell
-U400 Lock
-FP300 Presence Sensor
-T2 LED Bulbs (x8)
-Wireless Mini Switch (x2)
I also have 15-ish other smart home devices that connect to my AppleTV 4k via Matter.
I purchased the Aqara M3 hub over a year ago. Initially, it was so that I could use the Aqara Wireless Mini Switch/button to quickly control the smart bulbs in my bedside lamps (since it requires an Aqara Hub). Right now, those switches are the only things connected to the hub.I have experimented with adding the doorbell and lock to the hub over the past year, but it seemed like it caused intermittent issues with the Apple Home functionality, so I opted not to keep them connected.
My question:
Is there actually a compelling reason to connect any of my smart home devices (either Aqara or other brands of Matter devices) to the hub? If so, does it make more sense to completely remove them from the smart home setup and then re-add them as new devices via the M3 hub?
I’m curious to hear the experiences others have had in this regard.
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I have a similar ethos to you… maybe not quite as strict as you (I don’t fancy replacing my 3 vacuum cleaners just to get Matter support so did that via Home Assistant). Still, we are not too dissimilar.
So, the M3. I use it for a couple of things:
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I’ve created a Security System using the M3 and mostly Eve door and window sensors (I already had them before Aqara brought out theirs). The M3 will use other vendors Matter devices as it is also a Matter Controller.
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There is some functionality in some Aqara devices that Matter does not expose, and it is possible to use Aqara functionality to expose that to Apple Home.
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HomeKit is very limiting still unfortunately, it’s missing a lot of essential features and compatibility and is impossible to automate anything more complex than one or 2 if/than actions. I’ve been patiently waiting for Apple to get their ish together and release their smart home tech later this year along with Apple Intelligence. I have decided to use a hybrid of Home Assistant and HomeKit, but building out a Home Assistant and integrating everything to it has been a huge headache. But it’s the only way to build advanced automations with Apple tech currently so I’m determined to figure it out. I’m optimistic about the future with Apple, but if you’re like me a can’t wait, I’d suggest learning Home Assistant for integrating and automating almost every brand/type of device with rich and complex automations, and HomeKit for basic “turn the lights off” stuff at least until HomeKit gets a facelift. I house a virtual machine desktop on my Mac Mini M4 that I have set to never go to sleep so that my Home Assistant server can run 24/7 on it in the background, it kept me from having to buy a raspberry pi or HA hub, and keeps my entire ecosystem safe and secure on machine, not in a 3rd parties cloud.
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My M3 acts as an controller for a portable AC, as well as connects the other Zigbee hubs I have in the house, but it connects to HomeKit through Matter, not Zigbee, so the data that gets exposed to HomeKit may be lacking for your needs, connecting via Thread instead of Zigbee limits the data that is exposed to HomeKit, so like on my G410 the additional and advanced features offered in the Aqara app can’t be seen or used from the HomeKit app, so some(most) devices will be paired back feature-wise in HomeKit vs Aqara Home, so if there are specific features you want available to you in HomeKit I’d suggest either making sure they don’t cut anything critical you want, or use a different method of connection that exposes most/all features.
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For the current moment we are in (Spring 2026) you will always benefit by letting a hub do the heavy lifting (processing) for smart devices. It keeps your home network healthier and helps prevent lag and latency issues the larger the network grows.
It also helps trouble shoot issues if & when you experience those. Bottom line it helps keep everything organized in easier to manage later down the smart home rabbit hole.
Apple Home is great for the face to see and use daily for many reasons but under the hood you still need something to manage the chaos and keep things organized. A Hub is still King when managing chaos.
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Clearly matter and thread are still in development and will take more years to have zigbee features but the point of Apple home app is to unify devices compatible with matter and thread from different brands under 1 app without the need to open each app to control an device if you want more options there is always home assistant that gives you more then Apple home app but also help you to expose devices that are not matter supported to Apple home.i personally don’t use it as almost all my smart devices are exposed to Apple home app.still you can always do the automations you want for zigbee devices into aqara app for example and on Apple home app use the automations just to control more devices at once or make scenes.for example I have 2 electric roller blinds tape from meross I recently bought an Aqara cube T1 pro and what I did with it is 2 scenes as what is exposed to HomeKit for me it is just enough and I make the “good morning” scene with open the blinds and turn on tv and for the night scene to close my blinds and turn on aqara left strip T1 and this for me works perfectly no need for fancy automations to make things working for you.
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