Aqara Smart Hub M2 (2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Required), Smart Home Bridge for Alarm System, IR Remote Control, Home Automation, Supports Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit and IFTTT

I’m perpetually annoyed about the need to buy hubs, but here I am. I got the M2 hub instead of the M3 because it seems there’s still some kinks to be worked out with the M3. I followed the directions exactly as written and setup was super fast and easy.The only things I don’t like are that the M2 only comes in black (all of my other smart home devices are white) and the print in the little instruction book is practically microscopic. Nothing that’s a terribly big deal.I connected a vibration sensor to it then connected both to my Alexa app (after doing the Aqara app connections). One thing of note is that I first created an automation in the Aqara app, then disabled it to create an Alexa routine instead, and I noticed that Alexa sends me trigger notifications about twice as fast as the Aqara app does.I’m now looking forward to buying plenty more accessories, if for no other reason than to get my money’s worth out of this hub.

I bought this product for one reason, the 360 degree IR blaster and HomeKit connectivity so that I can add Siri commands and use my HomePod to control my LG tv. This is all I tested so I cannot review it’s connectivity to other devices, but for this… IT’S PERFECT!Admittedly, the setup is a bit weird (did not know it would speak to me lol 😂 ) and very clunky, so don’t get frustrated, but if you spend the time, it is worth it. Here is what I did:———————————————I’ll assume you have the device connected to your network and setup, and are in the Aqara App.Add your device. First you want to add your device(s). I.e. my LG TvDon’t worry about Automation. For this you won’t go here, I assume you can setup other devices you connect automations here. For this, You want “Scenes”So this is where the setup is weird and clunky. You need to manually add each action you want (Tv volume up etc.). Yea, this is tedious but necessary.Basically what we are doing is creating a HomeKit scene for each action that will sink to your Home App. This sounds weird but works surprisingly well.Click Add Scene. You will see your TV, then remote, then alllll your remote options. Pick the first one you want.When naming each action, give it a device name then the action. I named my TV “El G”, so my scenes were named “El G Volume Up” “El G On” etc. Yes you have to do every action you want.**do not name it just “Volume Up” as Siri will just turn the HomePod up, thus the TV Name first.Once you have all the TV controls you want set up as scenes, click Edit at the bottom and you will see the option to sync with the MyHome app.Done! You will see all the crazy amount of scenes you just created synced in your MyHome App.Now when you say “Siri El G Volume Up”Boom, tv turns up!!TIPs*you can add delays and additional actions in each scene. I added a second volume up so the scene would turn my tv up 2 notches instead of just 1.**my tv controls my soundbar so I did not need to add that as a device. You may need to if you control your speakers separately***you will see a Siri circle on the right in the Aqara app, if you select that you can record your own Siri command!Cheers.

I've had the "regular" Aqara M1 smart hub as the base for my Aqara smart home system for awhile now, and everything has been great. When this newer M2 hub was finally officially available in the U.S. market, I ordered one because it had one feature I really prefer when it comes to HomeKit hubs - that is, a wired network option. When the M2 hub arrived I was pleased to see that it was about as compact as the M1/M1s hubs - slightly larger in diameter but about 1/3 thinner in thickness. Adding it to my HomeKit setup took less than 30 seconds with the Aqara app, and in no time I had the M2 ready for service. However, when it came time to configuration it took some work.Since I intended on using the M2 as my new main hub, one thing I found a little annoying was that there was no way to manually select which smart hub to connect to for each Aqara accessory (I actually have 3 hubs total in my household spread out for good coverage). Because of this, I had to delete and re-add each Aqara accessory back into the Aqara app to bind them to the new M2 hub. This was a slightly tedious process because I currently have over 20 different accessories; however this gave me the opportunity to rebind each device to the hub with the best connection (as opposed to having all of the Aqara devices bound to one single hub). This let me take advantage of having multiple hubs for good signal for all of the Aqara accessories.Just like with the M1 and M1S hubs, once you have the Aqara devices bound to a hub in the Aqara app, you can then switch over to the Apple Home app for main controls. So far everything seems to be working as intended, though I have yet to try the integrated IR function of the M2 hub.A couple other things of note: first, you get a micro USB cable in the box, but no power supply; I simply used an extra USb charger from one of my iPhones as the power supply and it works fine. Second, the speaker in the M2 hub is not as loud as the M1/M1S hubs. I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with the design: the M1/M1S hubs are mounted usually in a wall socket, with the unobstructed speaker holes facing outward; however with the M2, since it's designed to sit on a flat surface, the speaker holes are around the base of the M2, aimed straight down at the table (or shelf, where I have mine). Fortunately as I mentioned earlier, I have more than one huib as part of my HomeKit setup and thankfully when you install the M2, all of the other M1/M1S hubs are synced with it, so if you turn the alarm function on the M2 to alert, all of my Aqara hubs will also make the same alert.So okay - the M2 is slightly more expensive than the M1/M1S, but you get LAN connectivity, you no longer need to find an open wall outlet (the M1/M1S hubs will block both wall plugs where you install them), and it has an IR function. Aside from everything I just said, the M2 is still a good choice to get your smart home started! Even if you're not starting from scratch, I would say that the M2 hub is also a good addition to an already established Aqara smart home system.

Save yourself time and frustration and just get the M3 instead. I was hooking up Aqara T1 valve controllers to the M2 and had consistently poor Zigbee signal on my connected devices. They would work only sometimes when triggered. I kept the same exact set up, just swapped the M2 for the M3, and my signal strength increased 10x. Devices that would work 50% or less of the time now work every time. This is a piece of junk, it literally feels like a puck of plastic with nothing inside. There are minimal instructions and basically 0 customer support. If you want something that “just works”, get the M3.