HomeKit Weekly: A look into the first Matter certified camera from Aqara

When Aqara first announced the Camera Hub G350, the headline that caught my eye was the claim that it is the first Matter-certified camera on the market. Matter, while not perfect, is a huge part of what I want out of the smart home industry: freedom from vendor lock-in. Let’s take a look at the new Aqara Camera Hub G350 and see how it works with Matter and HomeKit.

HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.

What is in the box and tech specs

In the box, you will find the camera and a really long USB-C cord. I wish Aqara had included a wall adapter in the box, but I have plenty lying around. Spec-wise, here is what Aqara included in the Camera Hub G350.

• Resolution and lenses: It uses a dual lens system that pairs a 4K wide-angle camera with a 2.5K telephoto lens. HomeKit Secure Video will again be limited to 1080p.
• Zoom and coverage: You get up to 9x hybrid zoom and a motorized pan-and-tilt base that provides a full 360-degree view of the room.
• Smart home hub: Beyond video, it operates as a Zigbee hub, a Matter Controller, and a Matter bridge for other Aqara devices.
• Local AI tracking: The camera features on-device intelligence to automatically track people and pets. I am naturally skeptical of how well these algorithms perform in a busy living room, but keeping the processing local rather than sending it to the cloud is a great step for privacy. This is not connected to Apple Home.
• Storage: You can record locally with a microSD card up to 512 GB, utilize a NAS, or connect it to Apple HomeKit Secure Video.
• Hardware privacy: Aqara included a physical lens shield that automatically covers the camera when it’s off, allowing you to verify it. I love this feature, and I wish every camera included it.

Aiming to be a true smart home hub

The Aqara Camera Hub G350 aims to be much more than just a security camera. It acts as a full smart home hub. It supports Matter 1.5, the latest standard that finally brings cameras into the Matter ecosystem. Apple Home has not yet updated to support Matter 1.5 cameras, but I suspect we’ll see that at WWDC as part of Apple’s fall release. That means we still rely on the standard HomeKit integration for the video feed today, but this camera is incredibly future-proofed for when Apple eventually flips the switch.

It also works as a Zigbee hub and a Thread Border Router. This means you can connect your existing Aqara door sensors, climate sensors, and smart buttons directly to the camera, and it will bridge them into Apple Home. Aqara has a ton of low-cost sensors that work great inside your HomeKit environment.

Setting up the Aqara Camera Hub G350 in Apple Home

Because Apple has not yet updated the Home app to support Matter 1.5 cameras, the G350’s setup currently relies on the standard Apple Home integration. Once you plug in the USB-C cable and connect it to your Wi-Fi network in the Aqara app, you can add it directly to Apple Home. It is as simple as scanning the code on the bottom of the device. The Matter code is on the back, and it’ll show up in Apple Home as a bridge, but the camera won’t be there yet. This was a bit confusing to me at first when I was setting it up.

Once it is in the Home app, it functions exactly like any other HomeKit Secure Video camera. You get iCloud recordings, facial recognition, and activity zones. The one downside to HomeKit Secure Video is that Apple still strictly limits the video feed to 1080p. However, because the G350 also supports RTSP, you can pipe the full 4K stream to a NAS or a local network-attached drive simultaneously. This dual-stream approach gives you the convenience of the Apple Home app for quick alerts on your iPhone, while preserving the high-quality 4K footage locally for when you really need to zoom in. I do feel like Apple is beyond on borrowed time when it comes to whether they care about HomeKit Secure Video. It’s beyond time to expand the feature set.

Wrap-up on the Aqara Camera Hub G350

The Aqara Camera Hub G350 is a solid HomeKit Secure Video camera that also serves as a hub for bringing all your Aqara devices into Apple Home. The hardware privacy shutter, the dual-lens system, and the Matter-certified future-proofing make it one of the most compelling cameras I have seen this year. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it as the Matter standards continue to evolve and gain Apple’s support.

You can purchase the Aqara Camera Hub G350 from Amazon.