Hey everyone, just wanted to share a quick win I had recently. Total smart home newbie here — like, two weeks ago I didn’t even know what a Zigbee hub was. I picked up an Aqara motion sensor on a whim thinking, “How hard can this be?” (Spoiler: it’s not hard, but it’s definitely a ride.)
I don’t use Apple Home as my daily driver — I’m deep into the HomeKit world but not using the Home app itself. Instead, I’ve been running HomeKit automations mostly through shortcuts, and figuring out how to make my Aqara motion sensor actually trigger stuff smoothly was a bit of a puzzle.
The solution? Patience… and making sure you pair the sensor directly through a supported Aqara hub that exposes it correctly to HomeKit. Once I got that down, boom — lights-on-when-I-walk-in like magic. I even got it to trigger a shortcut that makes Siri give me a cheeky “Welcome home, legend” every time it picks up motion after 6 PM (because why not?).
Moral of the story: even if you’re not all-in on Apple Home, you can still get HomeKit tricks working with Aqara devices. You just gotta set things up right and not lose your mind in pairing mode like I almost did.
Anyone else find weird/awesome ways to use these sensors? Drop your automations, would love to steal some inspiration!