This is great news. No, scratch that. This is fantastic news. Samsung is doing the right thing, finally.

If you've bought into the company's smart home efforts previously, you may have noticed a disparate selection of apps to control each one, like Samsung Connect, Samsung Smart Home, and SmartThings. This made no sense except than to show clearly how separate each department is inside the company. But that's no more. As announced at CES, Samsung plans to consolidate "more than 40 apps, including Samsung Connect, (...) into the SmartThings app." 40 apps, yikes... and yes!

But there's more good news for those of you who joined in the Samsung / SmartThings ecosystem. Beside the fact that the platform will be included in the company's new fridge and TV, hundreds of new devices are planned to be brought to SmartThings, and Samsung plans on making the app even more powerful:

  • The SmartThings app will receive a major overhaul in Q1 2018 for Android and iOS and will be available globally.
  • A version of the SmartThings app will be added to Samsung devices that have a display, like TVs, fridges, and more, allowing you to control your home without reaching out for your phone.
  • As part of the overhaul, devs and makers and service providers will have the ability to create custom panels to expand the capabilities of the app. SmartThings already has custom SmartApps and Device Handlers for devices that aren't officially supported, but the new panels are a bigger deal than that. Samsung will make 300 new panels available, but anyone can create one too.

Samsung says that when it acquired SmartThings, it was in 15,000 homes, now it's in over 1 million. Given the new announcement and the recent expansions of the hub into more products (SHIELD Link, TVs, fridges), this looks to be just the start. As a SmartThings owner, I really can't wait to have all my devices plug more naturally into the platform and app. I'm looking at you, Nanoleaf, LiFX, WeMo, Nuki, and all those cameras that aren't yet supported like Netatmo and Nest.

PRESS RELEASE