Aqara debuts smarter Matter hubs

For years, a smart-home “hub” was basically a translator box in a closet: one radio for Zigbee, another for Thread, and a phone app to glue everything together. Aqara’s new devices move that job into things people actually touch every day, like a thermostat screen and an indoor camera. (aqara.com) Matter is the shared language here. The Connectivity Standards Alliance added camera support in Matter 1.5 on November 20, 2025, so brands can send live view, alerts, and controls across ecosystems without custom one-off integrations. (csa-iot.org) Aqara’s Thermostat Hub W200 takes the wall thermostat and turns it into the house’s control center. The device combines a thermostat, a presence sensor, a Zigbee hub, and a Matter controller behind a 4-inch 480 by 480 touchscreen. (aqara.com) (store-support.aqara.com) That means the screen that changes your heat can also tell whether someone is in the room and can also relay commands to other devices. Aqara says the W200 can bridge Aqara Zigbee accessories to Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa, while also managing more than 50 Matter device types in the Aqara app. (us.aqara.com) The camera is the bigger standards milestone. Aqara announced on March 17, 2026 that the Camera Hub G350 is the company’s first Matter-certified camera, built around a 4K wide-angle lens plus a 2.5K telephoto lens with up to 9 times hybrid zoom. (aqara.com) (us.aqara.com) Aqara is selling the G350 as more than a video feed. The camera pans, tilts, and zooms, works as a Zigbee hub and Matter controller, and runs on-device audio and visual detection for things like crying, barking, person tracking, and package detection. (aqara.com) (us.aqara.com) The phrase “on-device” matters because the detection happens inside the camera instead of being shipped out first for analysis. Aqara also says the G350 supports Apple HomeKit Secure Video, which is Apple’s encrypted cloud recording system for compatible cameras. (us.aqara.com) (macrumors.com) This is the direction the smart-home market has been trying to reach since Matter launched in 2022: fewer single-purpose boxes and more devices that do two jobs at once. A thermostat now doubles as the room’s occupancy sensor and protocol bridge, while a camera now doubles as the router for the rest of the home. (csa-iot.org) (aqara.com) (us.aqara.com) The catch is that standards support still depends on what each platform turns on. Matter 1.5 created the common camera language, and Matter 1.5.1 on March 31, 2026 added more camera and doorbell improvements, but buyers still need Apple, Google, Amazon, and device makers to expose the same features in their own apps. (csa-iot.org) So Aqara’s launch is less about one thermostat and one camera than about where the category is heading. The smart-home hub is disappearing into ordinary hardware, and the products winning shelf space are the ones that can sense a room, run automations, and speak to multiple ecosystems at the same time. (aqara.com 1) (aqara.com 2)