Samsung expands SmartThings ecosystem for smart homes

Samsung announced it is expanding the SmartThings ecosystem for internet of things (IoT) devices in your home.

During a press event at CES 2024 — the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week — Samsung SmartThings unveiled a more immersive TV experience, allowing for enhanced convenience without interrupting content viewing.

The living room serves at the center of many households for families to come together, and SmartThings’ latest enhancements create a more connected living room experience, enabling users to effortlessly monitor and manage all of their smart devices conveniently from their TVs.

Smart home control with TV as a hub

With the TV functioning as a SmartThings Hub, your television turns into a seamless control center for all your connected devices. Your TV can now effortlessly detect your smartphone, turning it into an instant remote, eliminating the hassle of searching for multiple controllers.

The SmartThings TV Quick Panel is a non-intrusive interface for quick access to core functions via a remote control, bridging the gap between Samsung TV features and comprehensive connectivity, without compromising content viewing. The TV Quick Panel allows users to manage devices, view cameras, and even ring their phone to locate it within their home.

Users will be empowered to oversee their entire smart home without diverting attention from their screens. For instance, as you approach your television, it intuitively turns on, presenting not only your home’s entertainment, but also critical information about your devices and appliances.

From your television, you can view your home’s camera feed, temperature, and remaining time in your laundry cycle, all at a single glance.

New entertainment experiences

Now, users can step into their living room and experience seamless connectivity with the cutting-edge Now+ display – automatically syncing with TVs to effortlessly guide users through switching music sources from their Buds to the TV, speaker, or Sound Bar. Moreover, Now+ offers a comprehensive summary of the home, including insights into security cameras and energy consumption.

With TV Hue Sync, users can create an immersive viewing experience through the TV by syncing TV content and ambient lighting – bringing movies, TV shows, and games to life. Picture yourself watching a thriller where the room comes alive with vibrant colors matching the on-screen animation, or relaxing at the end of your day in a space filled with calming hues.

QR code scanning

Now you can share your smart home devices and routines with family, friends, and guests through a simple QR scan; and tailoring their experience based on their preferences.

As reliance on smart devices grows, so does the need for seamless integration and effortless control. SmartThings revealed SmartThings Together, a new way to easily share your smart living through QR customization.

The introduction of QR codes as a way to easily share access to devices within the SmartThings ecosystem marks a significant step in automating daily chores and at-home tasks. Issuing home control through QR codes offers a new level of flexibility, enabling each member of a household and any guests to control specific devices and create their own routines.

The QR codes make it easy to add new family members or caregivers to your home interface, which will allow them to conveniently control relevant smart home devices for a pre-defined duration. This way, your guests can unlock the door, set the thermostat, and make themselves comfortable. Many homes have one person who is the “smart home” tech aficionado, and the rest of the family has to work around their knowledge and expertise. Now, through SmartThings Together, all users can manage the smart home based on their individual needs and preferences.

For example, parents or homeowners may use their smart home to monitor energy use, check that security features are engaged, or to make sure the coffee goes off at the right time in the morning. A child in that same household might only care about control over the entertainment features – this can be granted by the parent through a QR code, allowing their child to record a TV program or play music through a shared speaker.

SmartThings Together also allows you to securely share the devices and experiences you want, and control who has access to them and when. This makes it much easier to host guests whether you have a friend visiting, or someone staying at your vacation rental for the weekend. Instead of sharing complex access codes or walking guests through arduous setup processes, a quick QR Code scan grants temporary access and control over designated devices and routines. Whether it’s adjusting room temperatures, controlling lighting, or accessing entertainment systems, guests can safely and easily navigate and enjoy the smart home experience without a hassle.

With SmartThings Together, users can streamline automation and device configuration. Location owners can designate device lists shared to each member of the household. After scanning a QR code, each family member can trigger an allowed, shared routine among those shared devices. For instance, users may activate a “Goodnight” routine, adjusting lights, thermostats, and security settings according to individual preferences for room temperature, night-lighting, background noise, and more.

It also allows for enhanced security. Each QR code is available to one person only, meaning several people could not scan a QR code at the same time. Additionally, the QR codes are only available for five minutes before they regenerate, creating a reduced window of vulnerability.

Map view

SmartThings is unveiling its highly anticipated Map View feature, designed to streamline home management by integrating actual floor plans into its interface. This first-of-its-kind innovation elevates smart home control by visually representing devices within the layout of a home – leading to easier and more convenient smart home management.

Today, the average U.S. home has 16 connected devices, and that number is increasing rapidly. As the number of connected devices people have in their home increases, so does the effort in managing them.

Map View simplifies device management across the smart home. It allows users to see their entire home at a glance, and all the devices in it, right where they are in the real world, whether via mobile or household device.

Users can choose to have the Map View feature activated on their TVs or mobiles, granting immediate access to important home status information. This includes real-time monitoring of cameras, temperature, remaining laundry time, and other essential data. It also provides energy usage data so users can manage their energy consumption from a birds eye view.

Previously, managing devices required navigating and scrolling to find individual devices. Now, users can easily generate a 3D map populated with all of their devices, reflecting their real positions within the home. Users can also customize by adding furniture, enabling easy device monitoring and control directly from the map interface.

And there are new AI characters that users can create in Map View. These characters can mimic the family members and even pets in the home, and provide an intuitive and fun way to monitor your smart living.

For example, if your home is too warm, then your AI characters will appear to be sweating. Not only has Map View made managing your smart home easier and more fun.

Anyone can easily create a 3D layout of their home in Map View using AI technology. For homes with internet available floor plans, users can input their address to automatically create their layout. If they only have a physical copy or image of a floor plan, they can simply take a photo of it and SmartThings will automatically convert it to a 3D layout. Users can even sketch their floor plan in the app to generate the layout.

Samsung’s LiDAR enabled devices, including the Jet Bot vacuum or the Ballie AI robot demonstrated at CES 2024, can be used to scan the home, generating a floor plan automatically, and in the case of Ballie, even placing devices in the right position. The Map View, created by mobile phone or tablet, can be used to check or control the status of each space and smart devices with a synchronized Map View across mobile phones, tablets, TVs and refrigerators – enabling easier, more convenient connectedness throughout your entire space and providing users with the same map view experience on all devices.

And last week, Samsung announced that it has established a service integration with Tesla, to be showcased at CES 2024. It will connect SmartThings Energy to Tesla products such as Powerwall home battery, Solar Inverter, Wall Connector charging solutions and electric vehicles (EVs).

Made possible through Tesla’s open APIs, this collaboration will result in the further expansion of SmartThings Energy’s already comprehensive level of connectivity and contribute to Samsung’s ultimate goal of enabling more convenient, seamless home experiences for consumers.