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Our source in Shanghai, Eric, has updated us on the latest developments with Aqara and we’ve seen a few very interesting things so far!

First off is the new Aqara Tuneable White smart bulb, seems to be available now in China, via jd.com and AliExpress for around ￥79.00, which works out to roughly US$11.00 or UK£9.00. Currently the Chinese bulb only seems to support 220-240V at 50/60Hz, but there will undoubtedly be a 110-120v version forthcoming. It should go without saying that these bulbs will work with HomeKit, via the Aqara hub, being that these are Zigbee based.

Further to this, and following on from the unannounced update to the Mi Home app that now allows for the adding of the Aqara app, it would seem that a further update, either to the Aqara Hub, or the Mi Home app – or both – is due to drop on November 25th (don’t hold us to that, please!), which will then bring full support to the Aqara Hub via the Mi Home app.

The diagram above could be seen to suggest that Mijia/Xiaomi devices will work with HomeKit, which some already do via the Aqara Hub, but it’s doubtful at this point that the Robot Vacuum cleaner will be supported via the HomeKit framework, at least not on November 25th. It’s more likely that this diagram is being used to illustrate that you will be able to control both your HomeKit devices (D-Link Omna, Hue Bulbs, NanoLeaf Aurora) and your Mijia/Aqara/Xiaomi devices, all in one app.

The final piece of information we’ve seen some ‘circumstantial evidence’ of is that the speaker/alarm within the Aqara Hub, may eventually be getting HomeKit support! If you take a look at the image below, you can see a mockup of two screens, one of a iPhone and another of (we presume) a Xiaomi phone, running Apple’s Home app and the Mi Home app, respectively. But if you look closer, you can make out an icon for an alarm. Could this be the Aqara Hub’s built-in alarm? The Chinese text doesn’t specify that it is, but we strongly suspect it will be. Let’s hope.