Samsung SmartThings is expected to become the first major smart home platform to fully support Matter 1.2. According to a press release, the SmartThings platform now works with Matter 1.2, allowing manufacturers and developers to begin integrating their compatible devices with the platform. The SmartThings app won’t be updated to support Matter until late summer. You will therefore not be able to control your Matter-compatible Roborock robot vacuum cleaner or Midea dishwasher via SmartThings before this date.
Samsung also announced several other updates to its smart home platform, including app design improvements, new device control options, a hub backup option, shareable routines, and the gamification of its SmartThings Energy feature.
Matter 1.2 support in SmartThings means that devices added to the new smart home standard — jointly developed by Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and others — will now work with Samsung’s smart home platform.
This includes refrigerators, room air conditioners, dishwashers, washing machines, robot vacuum cleaners, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, air quality sensors, air purifiers and fans . You will be able to add the devices directly to the SmartThings app via Matter, control them and receive notifications and alerts through the app.
The SmartThings platform already supports many of these devices, both from Samsung and other manufacturers (including Thermador, Bosch, and Dacor). But these are generally integrated in the cloud.
Matter will bring these integrations to the local level, which should result in faster response times and the ability to control devices even if your internet connection is down. Although Samsung’s connected devices work with the SmartThings app, they are not Matter certified. This means they only work with the SmartThings app, while Matter devices can work with any smart home platform that supports Matter.
Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home have yet to add support for Matter 1.2
However, the other major platforms, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home, have yet to add support for Matter 1.2. Apple has said it will support robot vacuums later this year, but there’s no word on other types of devices. Home Assistant supports Matter 1.2, but its Matter integration is still in beta. Although Matter 1.3 was announced in May, bringing support for energy management, microwaves, ovens, electric cooktops, extractor hoods and electric dryers, it It’s unclear when we’ll see widespread support for the platform.
There are currently only a handful of Matter-certified devices in the newly supported categories: Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra, Ecovac’s Deebot X2 Combo robot vacuums, and AiDot’s air purifier are a few examples. But now that one of the major platforms has announced support, I think we’ll see manufacturers enable it in their devices. Whirlpool (which owns KitchenAid and Maytag), Midea, LG, and Haier (which owns GE Appliances) are all notable brands that have said their products will support Matter.
Samsung announced a few other improvements for its platform in addition to a Matter update. It adds a new Hub Manager interface in the SmartThings app to provide a single place to manage multiple hubs. This adds the ability to choose a primary hub as well as a new hub backup feature. If you have multiple SmartThings hubs, a secondary hub can step in if the primary hub fails.
SmartThings has been expanding its hub infrastructure significantly in recent years, adding SmartThings hubs to its smart TVs, soundbars, and refrigerators. With Hub Backup, since you’re more likely to have multiple hubs in your home, if one gets unplugged, breaks, or you replace it, your smart home will still work. Most of Samsung’s newer SmartThings hubs support Thread, Zigbee, and Matter, but only the Aeotec SmartThings hub also supports Z-Wave.
Samsung Galaxy smartphone users are getting a new quick access feature to device control. You’ll now be able to choose which devices to add to your own home control page on the phone’s quick panel for quick access to adjusting the TV volume or changing the brightness of a light without opening the SmartThings app.
Energy management is a key feature of the smart home, and SmartThings Energy, the energy management service from SmartThings, is one of the most robust options. Now, Samsung is adding an interesting gamification feature to the platform, which lets you view and manage the energy consumption of compatible devices to help you save energy. When you use Samsung’s AI Energy mode, which automatically adjusts the energy consumption of devices, you can earn an Energy Stamp for every day you save 400 Wh of electricity. These can be converted into Samsung Rewards and spent on Samsung products on Samsung.com.
The SmartThings app is also getting some interface updates. The Devices tab will now display rooms as top-level tabs, making it easier to manage your devices by room. Device search has also been “improved” to help you find what you need faster. Devices will also have more easily viewable information on their card, including the device’s status. For example, a door lock will indicate whether it’s locked or unlocked.
You’ll also now be able to share any routines or automations you create in the app with your friends and family. Shareable routines will allow you to generate a QR code of a routine you’ve created so someone can scan it and activate it in the SmartThings app.
While these are mostly incremental improvements to the platform, they are all welcome updates that, if they work as advertised, will make using SmartThings to manage your smart home easier and more reliable. The platform has also paved the way for Matter adoption, and while Matter is still far from the seamless and fluid smart home experience we were promised, SmartThings now offers one of the most robust implementations.