If you run a Samsung TV, fridge or air purifier through the SmartThings app, the way you check and control them is about to change. Samsung has rolled out a platform update that puts a new feature called SmartThings Now at the top of the app's Home tab, reorganises how your devices are laid out, and lets your phone talk to your smart home gear directly so it keeps responding even when your internet drops.
The update reaches users on both Android and iPhone at no extra cost. The Samsung SmartThings platform now has 470 million registered users and works with more than 430 certified partner brands, so this touches a lot of connected homes, Malaysian ones included.
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SmartThings Now puts the right control in front of you
SmartThings Now shows up as a set of cards at the top of the Home tab. Instead of making you dig through menus, it reads your current situation and surfaces the information plus the one action that fits it, according to Samsung's announcement.
A few examples show the idea. If a Family Care member, say an older parent, shows no device activity for a while, a care card appears for the caregiver with options to check in or call. As you arrive near a saved home location, SmartThings Now can suggest switching on the lights and air purifier in advance, then offer to save that as a routine so it happens automatically next time. It also studies the past week of use to tidy your Favorites, for instance proposing to drop an air conditioner card as the weather cools or add an AirDresser card you have started using more.
A tidier Home tab
The Home tab itself has been reorganised into dashboards, device cards and service cards, each shown in a format meant to be easier to scan. Service cards take up less space so more fit on one screen, and a Live Wallpaper shifts through the day. A new Floating Bar keeps frequently used features within thumb reach at the bottom of the screen, which helps on larger phones and follows Samsung's current One UI design.
Local control keeps devices responsive offline
The change most people will feel is under the hood. When your phone and a SmartThings Hub are on the same Wi-Fi network, the phone can now talk to the hub directly instead of routing every command through the cloud. Samsung says that cuts response times by about 30% and lets you keep controlling devices through a temporary network wobble. The app switches between local and cloud control automatically depending on whether you are home or away, and an updated Offline Device Diagnostics page can push fresh network details to all your registered devices at once to bring offline ones back.
This sits alongside the efficiency angle Samsung has been pushing lately. We covered how SmartThings can trim a home's energy use and take over some chores, and faster, more reliable control is the other half of making a connected home actually pleasant to live with.
Matter 1.6 and four new device types
The update adds support for Matter 1.6, the latest version of the cross-brand smart home standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which Samsung says improves stability and group control. It also brings four new device categories into the fold: energy meters for real-time power monitoring, closures for specialised doors and gates, irrigation gear such as sprinkler systems, and soil sensors for garden conditions.
Wider standards support matters because it decides how freely you can mix brands without being locked into one app. It is also a reminder that the smart home platform race is heating up: Apple is rumoured to be readying its own smart home hub, and better Matter support is how Samsung keeps its system the one people build around.
"By delivering relevant information and controls at the right time, SmartThings is empowering users to manage their everyday lives more naturally," said Jaeyeon Jung, who heads the SmartThings team at Samsung.
There is no separate price to pay. If you already use SmartThings, the new Home tab and faster local control arrive as an app update, so it is worth opening the app to see what has moved.
