The SmartThings Blog

In 1954 the Genie® garage door opener became the world’s first mass-produced radio-controlled garage door opener remote. Fast forward over half a century, Genie granted wishes to consumers allowing them to monitor their garage door from anywhere with its Aladdin Connect® Enabled Smart Garage Door Openers. Now, Genie makes its next innovative leap by becoming a Works With SmartThings certified partner, joining SmartThings powerful connected ecosystem. Similar to SmartThings commitment to bringing smart functionality and capabilities everywhere consumers want it to be, Genie is committed to putting the homeowner first with the next generation of innovations. Through Genie’s Aladdin Connect and SmartThings, homeowners can receive real-time alerts and open and close their garage door from anywhere in the world with their smartphone. Now, SmartThings users can tell their smart speaker to open or close the garage door, set up a geo-tag to recognize entry to the driveway so the door will open, and many other easy to use smart options, putting users in control of how they gain or grant access to their home. Further, the SmartThings integration grants autonomous features, like automatically closing the garage door after a set amount of minutes, or incorporating into a SmartThings Scene to shut down when a connected home is headed into night mode. Other safety features include automatically opening the garage door if smoke is detected in the home, and notifying and opening itself if CO levels reach a dangerous threshold. Building on our recent integration with Mercedes-Benz, we’re enhancing the car-to-home and home-to-car experiences with new features that will launch in the coming months. Through SmartThings, users will soon be able to enable a garage door to open, start their car, and eventually set the car to back itself out. According to research, 3 out of every 4 homeowners with garages use their garage daily. Given that the majority of homeowners use the garage as the primary entrance to their home, the garage door is a critical part of a smart home system. We’re thrilled for the tens of millions of Genie users to enhance their connected homes and join the SmartThings family.

As part of our commitment to an open smart home platform, we've recently added a bunch of new devices to our compatibility list. By pairing these products with SmartThings, you can enhance your smart home and teach it a few new tricks. (more…)

Today, we meet Dani and her husband, Josh–he's a software test engineer, she's a social media specialist who also runs a blog and an Etsy shop. When they aren't nerding out over the latest technology, they're probably playing with their wire-haired Jack Russell Terrier or training him to pick up their laundry. (more…)

Welcome to our latest installment of “Hello, Smart Home,” a video series where we head inside customers’ houses and apartments to see how they’re using SmartThings to secure their homes, gain peace of mind, and complement their preferences and patterns. Today, we meet Craig, a tech manager who recently married his college sweetheart and moved with her into their first house. (more…)

In a story republished from his blog, Daniel Root describes how he's using SmartThings to bring intelligence into every corner of his home, creating a smart home custom to his lifestyle. (more…)

We're happy to announce that we're about to include a new addition to the Doors & Locks section of the SmartThings Dashboard that will make it easier than ever to monitor and control your garage door. The functionality will be added to the iOS app today, and to the new Android app experience that a closed group of beta testers are currently using. (more…)