The Aqara Hub M3 could be the Matter infused push the company needs to bring together the ultimate smart home

(Image credit: Getty Images / Oscar Wong)

Have you started to commit to the full smart home experience, only to realize some of your devices don’t quite work together as well as you expected? If so, Aqara has just announced a brand new hub that should solve all your problems — as long as your devices are Matter compatible.

Announced at CES 2024, The Aqara Hub M3 uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared, Zigbee, and Thread, capable of combining many smart devices around your home in one easy solution. It works with any Matter device, not just Asqara, which makes the Hub truly make up for its name by making it controllable with just a single app. For those unfamiliar, Matter is widely considered the industry standard connectivity for smart home devices. The best Matter smart home devices fully take advantage of this connectivity.

It has a huge amount of functionality and has Power over Ethernet (meaning it doesn’t need a separate plug) it’s designed to fit into your home setup smoothly, much like the Hub M2 before it. For now, though, we don’t yet have a price point or release date for any of the items announced at CES 2024.

In addition, the Hub M3 will also come with Aqara’s Home Copilot in the future, which is a new smart assistant to help you better manage your home. It can be used to set up automated systems to activate your smart items in certain intervals and can even suggest patterns based on your usage.

What else was announced?

Aqara showed off a smart plug which is also a Thread border router, allowing it to connect to multiple other Thread devices. Thread is a way of connecting small smart home devices together with their own network. Though the hub can group devices together, the smart bulb can more efficiently pair many in one go. It has some smart features which can allow it to monitor energy usage in your home.

If this doesn’t interest you, the Aqara Smart Lock U300 was also announced, which uses a fingerprint scanner, NFC reader, and a keypad for multiple ways to open the door that the lock is attached to. It is also Matter compatible, meaning you can hook it up to your Hub to unlock and lock from anywhere. All of these items position Aqara for a huge 2024 if the Hub 3 lives up to expectations.

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James is a staff writer and general Jack of all trades at iMore. With news, features, reviews, and guides under his belt, he has always liked Apple for its unique branding and distinctive style. Originally buying a Macbook for music and video production, he has since gone on to join the Apple ecosystem with as many devices as he can fit on his person.

With a degree in Law and Media and being a little too young to move onto the next step of his law career, James started writing from his bedroom about games, movies, tech, and anything else he could think of. Within months, this turned into a fully-fledged career as a freelance journalist. Before joining iMore, he was a staff writer at Gfinity and saw himself published at sites like TechRadar, NME, and Eurogamer.

As his extensive portfolio implies, James was predominantly a games journalist before joining iMore and brings with him a unique perspective on Apple itself. When not working, he is trying to catch up with the movies and albums of the year, as well as finally finishing the Yakuza series. If you like Midwest emo music or pretentious indie games that will make you cry, he’ll talk your ear off.