Hey ,
I’ve been fiddling with the M3 Hub since it dropped, and I gotta say — it’s way more powerful than most people realize. Thought I’d share a few things I’ve picked up after months of poking and prodding this beast.
First off: forget about seeing the M3 as just another Zigbee hub. If you dig into the Developer Hub features, you’ll find some crazy cool stuff. Native Matter support, LAN communication, and VP plugins? Game changer. I’ve got a setup where the M3 is handling Zigbee, bridging my HomeKit and HA over iHost instance, and even triggering local automations faster than my HA server did pre-M3.
Pro tip — use the local API to bypass cloud delays. Your devices will respond way quicker, especially for anything time-sensitive like motion-based lighting.
Also, if you’re into custom dashboards, the M3’s flexibility on that front is wild. You can build widgets around your own data structures, and even expose device states from other platforms if you’re not afraid of a little YAML and webhook magic.
If anyone’s down to get into more dev-level tweaks (or just want help getting started), drop me a line. Happy to share snippets, setups, and the occasional mistake I made so you don’t 
Let’s push this hub to the max. It’s got serious potential.
Cheers!
Your insights about leveraging its native Matter support, local API for faster responses, and custom dashboard flexibility are spot-on—and definitely something the community will find super valuable.
