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Matter
April 3, 2023

Everything You Need to Know About Matter 

Matter, a new industry protocol created by hundreds of leading and innovative companies (including Samsung), marks a new era for the smart home and its users. With a mission of simplifying the connected living experience, Matter makes it easy for users to buy, set up, and control smart devices. And while the new protocol is stirring a lot of buzz, many are wondering “how does it work?” Our Marketing and Strategy Consultant, Daniel Moneta, who is also one of the leads of the Matter working group, let us in on everything you need to know about Matter (and how you’re likely already prepared to use it!). Thanks for chatting with us, Daniel. Can you explain Matter in one sentence or less to someone who's never heard of it? Sure! Matter is an open-standard, common language for smart home devices that makes it way easier to get them set up and working together. What devices connect with Matter? Matter supports many of today’s most common smart home categories, with more to come in the future! Look for lights, plugs, blinds, door locks, thermostats, sensors, and other devices that have the Matter logo. That’s exciting! Is Matter a new kind of radio technology? Nope. Matter is an “application layer”, which means it can run over technologies already in your homes or devices — like Wi-Fi or Thread. Think of it like this: you and I can both have the same radio, but unless we speak the same language, we can’t really do anything interesting together. Technologies like Wi-Fi and Thread let you connect your devices, and Matter is the language they speak to each other. What is Thread, and how is it related to Matter? Matter devices can talk to each other over Ethernet (wired network), Wi-Fi, a new technology called Thread, or any combination. Thread is a new, wireless networking technology. Like Wi-Fi, Thread is based on Internet Protocol (or IP), so Thread devices join your home network just like any other kind of device. Thread is low power, and uses mesh networking to extend devices’ range, so it’s commonly found in battery-powered devices or ones that might be placed farther away from your home router.  In order to join your network, Thread devices connect through a “Thread Border Router”, a kind of bridge device that joins your Thread network to your Wi-Fi or wired network (just like an access point or router does for Wi-Fi). Thread Border Routers from any brand can be used to connect Thread devices, and many are built-in to devices including smart home hubs, smart speakers, and lighting. The latest SmartThings Hub, SmartThings Station, Samsung TVs, and Samsung Family Hub refrigerators have Thread Border Routers built in. How will Matter impact the lives of people who use multiple smart home devices on a daily basis? Matter makes smart home devices more responsive and reliable because devices connect to each other directly within the home instead of going through the cloud. And its simple, standard setup process makes it easy and consistent to add new devices to your home, no matter the brand.Does Matter need to be installed or will existing smart home devices be updated to support the protocol? Odds are you’re already set for Matter! Major smart home platforms — including SmartThings of course — have already updated most of their hubs (or products with hubs in them like TVs or smart speakers) to support new Matter devices.  As for the devices, a number of existing smart home devices can be updated to Matter. Check with your favorite brands to find out how. But don’t worry: your existing non-Matter devices won’t stop working, and you can still control and automate Matter and non-Matter devices together in SmartThings. Tell us more about smart home hubs. Do users need a hub to use Matter? Yes, but you probably already have one! Matter devices connect locally, so you need a controller (or “hub”) from your favorite smart home platform to connect to and control devices when you’re at home, or away. Most smart home platforms — including SmartThings of course — have already updated devices like hubs, TVs, and smart speakers to be Matter controllers for their users. Thank you, Daniel. Visit our website to learn more about Matter and how it works with SmartThings.
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Partner Spotlight
March 9, 2023

SmartThings Partner Spotlight: How Aeotec Keeps Customers Connected

Since 2013, we’ve proudly partnered with Aeotec, the leading maker of high-quality, everyday smart home products. What’s even more exciting is that their products, like the Aeotec Smart Home Hub, are exclusive and compatible with the SmartThings App, and connect to Works with SmartThings-certified devices, including Z-Wave, Zigbee, or Wi-Fi devices. We sat down with Aeotec to discuss how their products work with SmartThings — and how they keep users connected to their homes. Here’s what we learned. Aeotec Smart Home Hub First things, first. What do you need in order to set up a smart home with Aeotec and SmartThings? All you need is the Aeotec Smart Home Hub, which acts as the brain of your smart home, and Aeotec devices such as Actuators – light switches, cameras, smart doorbells, alarm systems, etc. – and Smart Sensors for security, home energy-use monitoring, and more. Simply download the SmartThings app and follow the app’s step-by-step instructions for connecting the device. That’s great! What are the benefits of using Aeotec and SmartThings? A solid and reliable smart home! Using the SmartThings app, you can automate and control all of Aeotec’s smart devices and products from hundreds of other brands to build a system that works for you and your needs. Can Aeotec-connected devices be controlled from anywhere?  Our app lets you easily control and monitor Aeotec devices no matter where you are. You can also do so with other smart home appliances like Samsung TVs, refrigerators, cooktops, washers and dryers, AC, air purifiers, and more. What about compatibility? Can you control devices from various manufacturers with SmartThings?  Yes! The SmartThings app lets you personalize your smart home. For example, you can use Aeotec products with Samsung devices or Z-Wave sensors with Zigbee light bulbs. Last question. Will the Aeotec Smart Home Hub support Matter in the future? Yes, the Aeotec Smart Home Hub supports Matter and is certified as a Thread border router. Matter will be the de-facto standard in every home, offering consumers interoperability between devices, flexibility, and more choices when purchasing connected home devices. Thank you, Aeotec!  Learn more about how Aeotec works with SmartThings here, and stay tuned for more partner spotlights on our blog and Q&As with our innovative partners on Twitter! 
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SmartThings Updates
January 20, 2023

Samsung “Does the SmartThings” at CES 2023

We brought “Calm” to CES 2023, with an up-close look at how SmartThings can seamlessly integrate into your daily lives through our latest innovations. While many of our announcements stood out among exhibitors, the new SmartThings Station received the most buzz and excitement from both the media and industry. Want to know more? Read on for all of our highlights and stand-out announcements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHVc9bzle0&t=2s Bringing Calm to Our Connected World We believe your smart home should work for you — and create a sustainable, safe, convenient (and even fun) living environment. While we have big dreams for what a calm connected world looks like, we demonstrated it at CES through the onboarding experience. In 2023, when you buy a Samsung device, SmartThings will simply ask you if you want to add it to your connected home. Instead of several steps to onboard the device, you only need to answer yes or no, making it more convenient for you to experience connected, smart living. Hub Everywhere Furthering our mission for Hub Everywhere, we introduced two new Matter-capable hubs for 2023: our TVs and the new SmartThings Station, a compact, wireless charger that also doubles as a hub to connect your smart home devices and create routines. Ready for bed? Just program the Station to automatically turn off your lights and TV for a custom night routine. Sustainability Saving energy matters now more than ever, which is why we’re placing sustainability at the core of our user experience. At CES, we announced our initiatives for sustainable living and commitment to making Net Zero Homes a reality with SmartThings Energy — a tool that’ll give you real-time data on your energy, water, and natural gas usage to help you reduce your carbon footprint (and your monthly energy bill). Because of our sustainability efforts, our connected home experience is the first mass-market Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS) to earn Energy Star certification. SmartThings in the News With an emphasis on our innovative technology and smart home solution, we received many awards and accolades during CES 2023. One of the most notable is the “Best of CES” award from Engadget for our ability to control connected devices throughout the home seamlessly. We also earned the “CES Innovations” award from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) for making smart home technology more accessible and user-friendly. The accolades didn’t stop there. Cementing our status as the most versatile and comprehensive smart home solution on the market, we were featured across top-tier, tech and consumer media outlets including Bloomberg, The Verge, CNET, TechCrunch, Men’s Journal, and USA Today’s Reviewed. CES 2023 was a success, and we could not have done it without our partners, customers, and employees. Stay tuned for more updates on our latest products and innovations, as we further our commitment to creating one simple home system with a world of possibilities. 
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A family sat together watching TV while the background lightings are set up properly through the phone and controllable by voice speaker or other screens
Matter
November 3, 2022

Samsung and Amazon team up to simplify Matter setup experience

As part of our effort to simplify setup and provide customers with increased choice and flexibility, Samsung is teaming up with Amazon to make it easy for customers to use SmartThings, Samsung’s connected living platform, or the Alexa service, to set up Matter devices once and control them using both smart home systems. Samsung and Amazon’s collaboration will allow customers to easily tap into Matter's multi-admin feature, as well as simplify onboarding while creating a unified Thread network in the home. Customers that opt-in will be able to control their Matter devices with both SmartThings and Alexa without having to set up devices on each smart home system. By sharing Thread network credentials, customers will benefit from streamlined setup for Thread based devices and a more reliable experience through wider coverage on a single Thread network. “SmartThings customers have long enjoyed using Alexa's voice capabilities to give them more ways to control the home. We are excited to work with Amazon to help simplify the smart home experience and provide more choice to our mutual customers on the types of devices and services they use in their homes.” said Jaeyeon Jung, Corporate Vice President and Head of SmartThings, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. “This collaboration ultimately provides further interoperability and will help ensure the potential of Matter is fully realized.” This collaboration is built upon upcoming Alexa APIs enabling bi-directional multi-admin simple setup and Thread credential sharing for Matter devices. These cloud-based APIs are designed to make complex technology fade into the background, allowing customers to effortlessly add Matter devices to their preferred services, realizing Matter’s promise of simplifying our customers’ smart home experience.
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SmartThings and Philip Hue lights syncs music with lighting
Partner Spotlight
September 1, 2022

SmartThings and Philips Hue Create First-of-Its-Kind Immersive Music Experiences

In an ongoing quest to enhance our ecosystem of compatible devices, we are pleased to announce an expanded partnership with Philips Hue to transform music listening into an immersive experience. Through a new integration with Hue Sync into the SmartThings platform, Galaxy users will be able to sync their Philips Hue lights to most music streaming services right from their smartphone or tablet. With nearly 20% of U.S. consumers owning a smart light, this feature allows users to easily connect their Philips Hue lights via Hue Sync on the SmartThings app – allowing users to seamlessly control, customize, and sync their lights to various music streaming services from their Galaxy mobile device to turn their smart home into the ultimate home entertainment center. Philips Hue has been a longtime partner of SmartThings, offering full-home control of smart devices when pairing Philips Hue lights with SmartThings. For years, users have been able to connect Philips Hue lights to any Samsung device with the SmartThings app, creating scenes that activate not only light bulbs but also smart blinds or televisions, making the home truly a smart home. As a leader in smart home technology, we are thrilled to offer SmartThings users the ability to sync their music and lights to create their ideal home experiences – whether for a dinner party, movie night, or workout session. We are excited about this new level of personalization and believe it will set the tone for next-generation connected living.
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SmartThings Updates
April 28, 2022

Celebrating 10 Years of SmartThings

This month marks the 10th anniversary of SmartThings as a company. Through our journey, we have laid the foundation for the next generation of the smart home, and we have made significant shifts all for the benefit of our users.  Since the early days, our goal of making a platform that every human being can use – and making every home a smart home – has remained the same. We’re driven by the idea of accelerating IoT adoption for everyone and helping consumers across the world realize the benefits of a seamless and simple connected life.  Looking Back the Progress We’ve Made  Years ago, the idea of a smart home was more of a novelty than a reality. In 2011, Alex Hawkinson developed the idea for SmartThings after his family's house in Colorado was extensively damaged from a power outage, causing tens of thousands in repairs. While the idea of a “smart home” was depicted in movies and TV shows, there was no real solution that could give consumers an accurate depiction of what was going on inside their home.  This was the basis of the company’s Kickstarter in 2012. The campaign received over $1.2 million from 5,700 backers, due to a simple idea: adding intelligence to everyday things would make life more awesome. The company was committed to changing the mindset about smart home technology, demonstrating that data about how people live and what they do have the power to solve everyday problems.  This caught on, and others began taking notice. In 2013, Wired highlighted SmartThings as a key leader in the emerging smart home automation space, and we launched our first line of commercial products at CES in 2014.  The opportunity to bring SmartThings’ vision to hundreds of millions of customers truly came to life when Samsung acquired SmartThings in August 2014 to accelerate its connected appliance strategy. With the backing of Samsung, making every home a smart home was no longer a pipe dream – it was only a matter of time.  Moving Toward Mass Smart Home Adoption  Driven by the goal of achieving mass smart home adoption through a unified and intelligent home experience, we innovated from a single line of commercial products into one of the largest integrated ecosystems.  Today, SmartThings works with hundreds of compatible devices, including lights, cameras, voice assistants, locks, thermostats and more, through partnerships with leading brands like Amazon, Honeywell, Arlo, and Google Home Assistant. The company has also brought the groundbreaking smart home interoperability standard, Matter, into the SmartThings ecosystem.  In just ten years, we have risen to become the most robust smart home IoT platform in the market. We are proud that SmartThings now has:     200+ global partners and the ability to integrate with thousands of devices 800+ talented employees across Samsung who are dedicated to SmartThings15 categories of supported devices, from voice assistants to window treatment and more9 add-on services in the SmartThings' app today, including Air Care, Clothing Care, Cooking, Energy, Home Care, Pet Care, Smart Lock Guest Access, Find, and Home Monitor 4.5 stars rating in the Google Play Store and a 4.3 rating in the iOS App Store  Looking back on all that we have accomplished, we’re grateful to our wonderful partners and developers. Good things happen when devices talk to one another, and without our strong partnerships, creating meaningful connecting living experiences would not be possible. As we continue the path toward mass smart home adoption, we’re focused on creating experiences with consumers at the center. While solutions like SmartThings enable a more connected living experience, consumers are at the heart of our business – the ones who bring smart homes to life by supporting all their big life moments. We’re excited about the future and the opportunity to make smart home living the norm for consumers in the next ten years and beyond.
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SmartThings Energy
November 11, 2021

Discover Even More Eco-Friendly Home Solutions with SmartThings Energy

In an effort to provide our users with more eco-friendly home solutions, SmartThings is expanding its SmartThings Energy platform with new features that will allow users to make greener decisions. These new features include whole home energy monitoring and individual device monitoring, as well as the ability to participate in an energy switching market place. The new features build on the existing services to help manage household energy use, save money, and contribute to a lower carbon footprint. Originally launched in the U.S. in July 2021, SmartThings Energy has revolutionized the home energy category and represents Samsung's commitment to a more sustainable future. By combining the features on the SmartThings platform with Samsung energy-efficient products and intelligence, SmartThings Energy empowers users to make smarter decisions about their energy consumption, helping them make a difference and reduce their carbon footprint. With the original release, SmartThings Energy allowed users to monitor energy usage from compatible Samsung appliances, discover consumption data, and get energy saving tips. Now, SmartThings Energy has expanded and partnered with Copper Labs, Eyedro and Wattbuy in the United States. With these new partnerships, SmartThings Energy now provides: Whole energy home monitoring: Copper Labs offers wireless real-time energy monitoring management solutions by providing its customers with the data insights needed to optimize their energy consumption. Through SmartThings Energy, users are able to monitor and report whole-home energy consumption in real time through the SmartThings App. This integration also allows homeowners to set up automations based on energy costs or demand response events.Individual device/disaggregated energy monitoring: Eyedro energy monitors measure energy consumption data from specific devices on a home’s energy meter, and allow users to measure energy consumption from specific, high-energy consuming devices, such as HVAC systems, pool pumps, and water heaters.Energy switching marketplace: WattBuy provides a platform for SmartThings Energy users in relevant markets to save money or go with renewable sources by offering options with their home electricity. Users get personalized recommendations for the best suppliers available in their areas and can make a switch for services in a few clicks. SmartThings Energy continues to attract users around the US and the world, empowering users to make smarter decisions about energy consumption and making it easier than ever to engage in eco-friendly habits.
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SmartThings Updates
August 19, 2021

SmartThings Introduces “SmartThings Edge”, allowing for Faster and Easier Home Automations

SmartThings is excited to announce SmartThings Edge, a new hub architecture that allows core functionality to execute locally, leading to smart home experiences that are more reliable, faster, and more secure. While users will not see a change within the SmartThings app, on the backend, SmartThings Edge is transforming connectivity and the experience in a noticeable way. SmartThings Edge’s advanced technology increases the speed of automations for consumers by eliminating the need for cloud-based processing, bringing all the information directly to the Hub. This not only streamlines events and commands, but also allows for local device support on a home network, allowing users to run their Automations locally. This local device support decreases latency and increases reliability. SmartThings users will also be able to connect Zigbee, Z-Wave, and LAN-based integrations, with the ability to connect more protocols in the future, including Matter. As part of SmartThings’ evolution to modernize and move away from the legacy Groovy platform, SmartThings developed a solution that would be able to deliver the developer experience to meet the current times. Developers are now able to code and build Device Drivers with Lua©, offering a more robust and simpler way for device manufacturers to integrate with the SmartThings platform. This new platform architecture is an example of SmartThing’s commitment to investing in technologies that make it easier for our global developer network to build the next generation of smart home experiences that inspire meaningful moments.
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SmartThings Energy
July 15, 2021

Go Green and Save Money with SmartThings Energy

Looking for new ways to take control of your energy consumption? SmartThings Energy, a new service within the SmartThings app, allows consumers to make greener decisions with monitoring, target-setting, and notifications of Samsung appliances and HVAC systems.  The new, first-of-its-kind solution provides another reason to invest in IoT. With more people staying at home during the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in home energy usage. Now, one of the most sought after smart home features is available. SmartThings Energy delivers a real-time view of energy consumption, analysis and cost estimates – putting control into the hands of its users.  SmartThings Energy is the most comprehensive real-time energy consumption data on the market and addresses challenges related to major energy consuming appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators and laundry machines, head-on.   Through SmartThings Energy, users can: Monitor the energy usage of home appliances. Users can check their electricity and water usage from a single device or aggregated usage from multiple compatible devices. They can also view their consumption data in comparison to target goals and see how much energy they are using compared to the previous month.  Discover consumption data. User-friendly charts allow users to understand how much energy each of their devices is consuming. In addition, users will receive energy saving tips based on the devices that are connected. For example, switch to eco-wash mode to run laundry. Save energy through notifications that alert users when they’re using too much energy at a given time. For instance, the interface sends alerts when a device is left on while users are away from the home and when they are using more energy than their monthly target. SmartThings Energy, which will support most of the Samsung Home Appliances and HVAC products, is the latest innovation that represents the company’s commitment to sustainable living. In the future, SmartThings will expand the service to WWST partners and bring in new partners that specialize in energy management.
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SmartThings Updates
June 8, 2021

Introducing the New SmartThings Experience

We are pleased to unveil the next generation of our SmartThings connected home experience. Featuring a new look and feel, the new SmartThings interface offers users a simpler, more robust user journey, and faster load times.  Smart homes continue to surge in popularity, with the number of smart homes expected surpass the 350 million mark by 2023. The new SmartThings interface delivers on the needs of both future and existing customers by creating a more seamless application experience. With an enhanced user journey, SmartThings makes life easier to discover and experience IoT services, while ensuring a seamless transition from SmartThings’ previous version.   The updated app, which will be available on desktop and mobile devices, is the latest example of our ongoing commitment to bringing smart functionality and capabilities to consumers. The revamped layout will include five different sections: Favorites, Devices, Automations, Life, and More: Favorites is the new home screen within SmartThings and gathers the devices, scenes, and services used most for quicker access. Devices lets users view and control all devices, connecting TVs, light bulbs, appliances, and more. Life is a place to explore the growing world of connected living where users can discover new SmartThings services that transform physical products into meaningful user experiences. Automations connects devices and allows them to work together and respond to specific conditions in the home, such as a door opening and a light turning on.  Menu will house additional SmartThings features including SmartThings Labs, Notifications, History, and Settings.     This update comes on the heels of recent news about SmartThings’ new Windows application, which offers a similar user experience right from a Galaxy Notebook and any other Windows PC. 
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