You don't need Aqara hubs to expose Aqara locks U50 & U100 to Home Assistant (and Google Home) if you have HomeKit

Did a lot of research here and everybody said the hub was needed, but in my case, it wasn't needed. This worked on my Aqara U50 Smart lock (not matter-enabled), and should also work on the U100.

Function lost: Apple Key Card

What's needed for HA:

-Bluetooth passive scan turned on on your HA

-iPad/iPhone for homekit

Set up the lock using the aqara app. Then add to Homekit using Apple Home on iPhone/iPad.

After added to Homekit, remove from Apple Home. Here the lock doesn't appear under "discovered". Go to HA Homekit integration > add entry. In the dropdown, Aqara shows up. Select that, and configure. The lock should be successfully set up in HA. I have the Aqara U50 smart lock, but it shows as the U100 for me.

How to connect to Homekit and/or Google Home from HA

Google Home needs Google Hub. I used an old Google Home Mini for this.

I have both Apple and Android users in my house. There are two options for Apple users. One is Homekit Bridge over from HA to Apple Home, and another is using Matter. Both these need an Apple hub for remote access. I have the Apple TV 2022 and used the matter option. To use Matter, get the Matter Hub add-on found here:

https://github.com/t0bst4r/home-assistant-matter-hub

The Matter hub add-on above creates a Matter bridge in HA for your devices, so you get a Matter QR code for your devices set up in HA that you can use to expose to other platforms. This is how you can expose the lock (and other devices you choose to) from HA to Google Home.