Hey everyone! Long-time lurker here, but I thought I’d finally share something that might help a few of you out.
I’ve been slowly building my smart home setup over the past year—bit of a hobbyist now, I guess—and integrating Aqara into the mix has been smoother than I expected. I’m currently using a mix of HomeKit and Alexa devices at home, and after some trial and error (okay, a lot of error), I finally got Aqara sensors talking nicely with everything else.
Quick tip: If you’re using HomeKit, the Aqara Hub M2 is a beast. Just add it in the Home app and boom—Motion Sensor, Door Sensor, Vibration Sensor, the whole crew shows up like magic (well, almost). I’ve been using motion sensors to control lights in the hallway and bathroom, and it’s been working flawlessly; lights come on as I pass, turn off right after I leave. Super clean.
For Alexa folks—yes, you can integrate it too, but the trick is to first link your Aqara hub to the Aqara Home app, then connect to Alexa through the skill. Once that’s done, routines like “open door = turn on hallway light” or “motion = play music” are easy to set up in the Alexa app.
The beauty here is that Aqara stuff is pretty fast and doesn’t eat up Wi-Fi bandwidth since it’s on Zigbee. I’ve got a few automations going where motion at night turns on dim lights, or when the door opens, a notification pops up on my phone and Alexa gives me a heads-up. It feels like having your own little digital butler.
Curious if anyone here’s using Aqara with Google Home—how’s that been for you? Also open to any cool automation ideas people have rigged up!
Let’s trade tips!