Samsung adds Matter 1.2 support to SmartThings

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, so manufacturers and developers can begin integrating their compatible devices with the platform. The SmartThings app won’t be updated to support Matter until later this summer. So you won’t be able to control your Matter-compatible Roborock robot vacuum or your Midea dishwasher via SmartThings until then.

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.

Support for Matter 1.2 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 its own Samsung brand and from other manufacturers (including Thermador, Bosch, and Dacor). But this is usually done via cloud integrations.

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. While Samsung’s smart home devices work with the SmartThings app, they aren’t Matter certified. That means they only work with the SmartThings app, while Matter devices can work with any smart home platform that supports Matter.

However, the other major platforms, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home, have yet to add support for Matter 1.2. Apple has announced that it will support robot vacuum cleaners later this year, but nothing is known about other types of devices. Home Assistant supports Matter 1.2, but its integration with Matter is still in beta. Although Matter 1.3 was announced in May, bringing support for energy management, microwaves, ovens, electric hobs, extractor hoods and electric dryers, we not sure 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 significantly expanded its hub infrastructure in recent years, adding SmartThings hubs to its smart TVs, soundbars and refrigerators. With the Hub Backup feature, since it’s more likely that you have multiple hubs in your home, if one is unplugged, breaks down, or you replace it, your smart home will still work. Most of Samsung’s new SmartThings hubs support Thread, Zigbee, and Matter, but only the Aeotec SmartThings hub also supports Z-Wave.

Samsung Galaxy smartphone users benefit from a new feature for quick access 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 smart home feature, and SmartThings Energy, SmartThings’ energy management service, is one of the most robust options. Now, Samsung is adding an exciting gamification feature to the platform, which allows you to 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 each 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 will 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 to activate it in the SmartThings app.

While these are mostly incremental improvements to the platform, they’re 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 a long way from the seamless, frictionless smart home experience we were promised, SmartThings now offers one of the most robust implementations.