What is Samsung SmartThings?

A collection of big name companies are members of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the group that publishes the Matter smart home standard. Among them are Google, Apple, Amazon, IKEA… and Samsung SmartThings.

You’ve heard of Samsung, but what on earth is SmartThings? And how can it help to encourage the use of Matter as a smart home technology?

What Is Samsung SmartThings?

Founded around the development of automation and IoT software, SmartThings was launched as a Kickstarter in 2012, when it raised $1.2 million, making it the most successful smart home crowdfunder to date. It has been part of Samsung since 2014.

The platform is said to have 62 million users, although this is surely in part to SmartThings software being included in Samsung Galaxy phones and other devices. It basically means anyone with these devices has the tools to begin building a Matter smart home.

In fact, this ubiquity across the Samsung range has helped SmartThings become an easy choice when it comes to smart home automation software. While it initially offered a combination of hardware and software, since 2020 it has shed its hardware line and focuses on software and cloud services for smart homes.

SmartThings: A Foundation for the Smart Home

A vast collection of devices have SmartThings compatibility. However, not all of these are Matter compatible. Instead, they’re typically a mix of Zigbee and Matter, which can complicate things when buying devices.

The SmartThings Supported Devices page is a good place to start if you’re looking for compatible devices. Lights, thermostats, security devices, and many other categories of smart home gear are supported. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to do a bit more research to confirm Matter compatibility.

Matter controllers support bridges, which enable Zigbee, Z-wave, and proprietary smart home devices to connect to Matter. Remember, these are older technologies that Matter is essentially built upon. Consult our look at Zigbee and Matter to learn more about this.

The Works With SmartThings feature ensures that Matter bridges (such as the IKEA Dirigera) can be seamlessly onboarded. This helps to improve the experience, and minimize any disruption when setting up new devices.

Matter: The Future of Smart Homes

Although Matter is considered the best way to bring smart home technology to a usable, interoperable level, this isn’t possible without the right hardware. Seamless integration is possible, and device compatibility is wide thanks to Matter bridges, but beware that some older devices simply won’t work – after all, Matter is the future of smart homes, not the past.

Matter is basically a standard for smart home devices to communicate. Your control over the devices is via a smart home app or smart assistant. Our guide explaining what Matter is should fill in the gaps.

In most cases, you will use a Matter controller and companion app. SmartThings has both of these areas covered, with controllers available both as standalone devices and integrated within devices such as Samsung TVs, speakers, and even Samsung smart fridges.

The chances of your owning a Samsung TV and phone are quite good. This combination of devices alone makes integrating other Matter devices into a SmartThings-based smart home pretty simple.

SmartThings Makes Your Smart Home Matter

The Matter protocol is adopting support for new device types with each iteration. Onboarding these devices might be tricky, but with SmartThings it can be kept simple. The ease with which you can add devices (see how swiftly I added a Matter smart plug to SmartThings) makes this a great option.

Of course, there are alternatives: Google, Apple, and Amazon, all offer Matter controllers, associated apps, and device enrollment. However, I’ve found SmartThings to be friendlier and more adept at finding devices.

Does this make it the best option for Matter smart homes? Possibly, but what surely works in SmartThings’ favor is that thanks to Samsung, you can find SmartThings on most phones and TVs.

On Samsung phones, you have the app; on its TVs, SmartThings is a key part of the user interface. It’s there, it’s ready to use; with SmartThings, you have a Matter smart home at your fingertips.