Aqara Hub (Unofficially) Working with Mijia Devices

Whilst I’ve had the HomeKit-compatible Aqara Hub for a few days now, I’ve actually not had much time to experiment with it, due to moving house – yes bad timing, if ever there was a good time to move…however, having now successfully transplanted myself to the new ‘pad’, I’ve found a little bit more time to experiment with the hub in regards to other non-Aqara smart devices.

In the video below, I successfully managed to pair the Xiaomi/Mijia smart switch to the Aqara Hub to do some basic automations; Single press and double press both controlling the colour of the night-light on the hub itself, with a long press to control the speaker – in this case, a doorbell sound.

I previously uploaded a video to Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, demonstrating a Xiaomi/Mijia door sensor that was ‘successfully’ paired to the Aqara hub to do a similar simple automation. I say successfully with a small caveat; When you attempt to pair a non-Aqara branded device, you ultimately need to choose the Aqara equivalent of the device you intend to add, so if you’re adding a Mijia motion sensor, then you need to choose the Aqara motion sensor when you proceed to add a device via the Aqara app. This means that if the Aqara equivalent device doesn’t exist (like the Mijia Smart Kettle for example) it can’t be added, as there’s currently no Aqara branded smart kettle.

When you proceed to add the device, you follow the relevant instructions, and are eventually told that the device was successfully added. The app tells you something different, essentially saying the device had failed to be added. The new device will not appear in the list of devices in either the Aqara or Apple Home apps, however the device will appear as an option when creating automations, although this is limited to the Aqara app, so these devices will not appear in the Home app in any form.

Currently, the only other devices I am yet to test are the Mijia motion sensor and Temperature sensor, but as they’re in an inaccessible location, that’ll have to wait. I do feel very confident they will appear as have the smart switch and door sensor though.

Aqara has stated to enquiries via its Twitter page, that Xiaomi/Mijia devices will be officially supported in December, which could mean that many more devices, like the aforementioned Smart Kettle, will eventually be supported in the Aqara app. It will remain to be seen whether such exotic devices will make it to the Home app though…