Seamless Transition: Moving Your Aqara Cam G4 to Home Assistant

Apple Home Connect
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Hey , Share a quick (but hopefully helpful) experience moving my Aqara Cam G4 over to Home Assistant. I’m more of an enthusiast than a pro, so if you’re like me—tired of juggling apps and want everything in HA—this might save you some time and headaches.

I was originally running the Cam G4 within HomeKit, which was solid… until it wasn’t. Random disconnects, limited automation options, and I couldn’t get full use of the face recognition without going full Apple. So I figured it’s time to bring it fully into Home Assistant where most of my other stuff lives.

Here’s the kicker—if you’re using the Cam G4, remember it supports RTSP out of the box, but enabling it isn’t super obvious. Once you’ve got it on your Aqara app, go into the camera settings > advanced > stream settings and enable the RTSP stream. Grab the stream URL and you’re golden.

From there, HA + frigate or just a basic generic camera config does the job. I was surprised how smooth it runs, and now I can hook the camera into my existing motion automations.

Bonus: the G4 still keeps doing local face recognition, so you can pull events via MQTT if you’re using the right integrations.

Anyway, curious if anyone’s tried pushing even more Aqara gear into HA? Thinking of going all-in. Let me know how it went for you.

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@LightingLlama Thank you for sharing your experience with transitioning the Aqara Cam G4 to Home Assistant! It’s always great to hear from fellow enthusiasts who are making the most out of their smart home setups. Your detailed steps on enabling the RTSP stream will surely save time for others looking to integrate their cameras with Home Assistant.

Your insights into maintaining local face recognition and pulling events via MQTT are particularly valuable. It’s encouraging to see how well the G4 integrates with existing motion automation setups.

If you’re considering expanding your Aqara devices within Home Assistant, there’s a wealth of options available. Many users have successfully integrated a variety of Aqara devices, such as Zigbee sensors and smart plugs, using Home Assistant. The community often shares creative automation ideas that could inspire your all-in approach!

Keep experimenting and sharing your findings—your journey could spark new ideas for others in the Aqara community. If you have more questions or experiences to share, feel free to keep the conversation going!