Hands-on with Aqara’s new Matter-compatible camera

The first Matter Camera is here – sort of. Camera support came Last year’s smart home standardand Aqara G350 camera center He is the first to support it. G350, which was Announced at CESlaunched this week, is a pan-tilt indoor security camera with up to 4K video resolution.

Today, it only supports G350 It matters on Samsung SmartThingsNone of the other platforms have added Matter 1.5 yet. I only had the camera set up for a day, and it took several firmware updates before I could connect it as a Matter camera. So far, all she can do is broadcast a live broadcast, which is much less than she can do Samsung promises that the Matter cameras in SmartThings will do the trick. But there is a lot of potential here.

The G350 has great specs for the indoor camera. It features dual lenses – a 4K wide-angle lens and a 2.5K telephoto lens – and up to 9x hybrid zoom. A built-in tilt mechanism provides 360-degree coverage with automatic tracking of people and pets, and the physical lens shutter is activated when the camera is turned off.

Along with the article, it supports the Aqara G350 Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service It can connect to Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and other platforms via the cloud. You can also store footage locally to a microSD card, and RTSP support allows video to be streamed to platforms like Home Assistant and NVR. Aqara offers its own cloud storage service, It is end-to-end encrypted.

Although the G350 worked perfectly in the Aqara app, my experience with the Matter was less so. My first attempts to connect the camera directly to SmartThings by scanning its material code failed, resulting in the device being added as a hub instead of the camera. (Like many Aqara cameras, the G350 is also a smart home hub for Aqara’s Zigbee devices, as well as a Matter controller, bridge, and Thread Border router.)

Instead, I added it to the Aqara app. Here, it showed up as a camera and eventually gave me several firmware updates, one of which brought Matter 1.5 support, allowing me to finally add it to SmartThings as a camera using the Matter multi-management feature. (You will need to SmartThings Matter Controller To contact the platform.)

One of the promised benefits of Matter-powered cameras is the ability to manage all of your cameras through your main smart home platform, without being tied to a brand.

Today, if you have a mix of cameras — like a Ring Doorbell, an Aqara indoor camera, and an Eufy flood camera — you’ll need to use multiple apps to access all the features. And while you can stream live views from many different camera brands using a platform like Alexa, you can’t watch recorded video or adjust settings like pan and tilt without going to the manufacturer’s app. Matter supports all of these features and can get you one step closer to using just one app to manage your smart home.

Integrating cameras into your smart home app also allows for more advanced automations, such as “when I open the door, turn on the lights, and turn off the camera.”

With Matter, security cameras can support live video and audio streaming, two-way chat, and local and remote access. The standard also allows for comprehensive pan and tilt controls for cameras, setting of detection and privacy zones, and continuous and event-based recording with the ability to store footage locally or in a cloud service (with the option of end-to-end encryption) – all within the smart home platform’s app.

According to SamsungSmartThings should offer all of these features, although not all of them are available yet. I was only able to watch the live stream, take a snapshot, and use one-on-one chat. While I saw pan, tilt, and zoom controls and a tab for video history, I couldn’t use them. According to Mater Alpha BlogThat’s because the G350 doesn’t support the Matter’s pan-tilt controls yet, but they should come via a firmware update.

The live stream was clear and responsive, and loaded instantly without any lag, with only a second or two of initial buffering. Crosstalk worked well, and I could hear and be heard clearly. Material is a native protocol, and you can really see its benefits here.

The settings page showed options for motion-activated recording, adjusting the camera resolution and volume, and creating presets for monitoring different areas. However, only the volume and resolution buttons worked. I couldn’t switch between recording or viewing any recorded video in the History tab of the SmartThings app, even with a microSD card in the camera. The scrollable timeline just said “no record”.

It’s not clear if you’ll need a subscription to view footage recorded through SmartThings, or if you’ll need to use Aqara’s service, starting at $4.99 per month/$49.99 per year, if you’re not using local storage. I’ve reached out to Samsung to confirm and will update this article when I know more.

There was no option in the app to enable the smart alerts, such as facial recognition and package and vehicle alerts, that the G350 offers. For those, you’ll still need to rely on the Aqara app.

I’ve had a weird experience with Android vs iOS. Live streaming was only shown in the SmartThings app on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, without controls. It also just showed a blank settings screen. But on the iPhone 17 Pro, the controls were visible, as was the Settings page.

As mentioned earlier, SmartThings only supports Matter cameras currently. probably Apple will follow suit (at some point)Home Assistant said so Work on support. But I don’t expect Google Home or Amazon Alexa to join anytime soon — if ever. Neither has committed to support, and both have their own camera ecosystems. So, simple setup and seamless management of security cameras in one app may still be a long way off.

However, although my first experience with the cameras in the Matter was very basic, it looks promising. I can see a future (if everyone joins) where Matter Camera support is similar to Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video — just more open and interoperable.

The benefits of Apple’s app – cameras that are more integrated into your smart home, brand-independent, secure and private – are features that every smart home user will be happy to see. All we currently have is the first Matter-enabled camera, and most of its features don’t work yet. But it’s the beginning.

Photography by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge