Samsung has introduced a major update to its SmartThings app, featuring a redesigned Home tab, smarter contextual controls and broader device compatibility through Matter 1.6, aiming to create a more seamless and resilient smart home experience.
Samsung has overhauled the SmartThings app with a redesigned Home tab and a set of features aimed at making the platform faster, more context-aware and easier to use across its device ecosystem. The update introduces a cleaner layout aligned with Samsung’s One UI design language, alongside larger, more readable service cards and a floating navigation bar intended to improve one-handed use on bigger phones. According to Samsung, the new interface is available on both Android and iOS.
At the centre of the refresh is SmartThings Now, a card-based area at the top of the Home tab that surfaces suggestions and controls based on location, usage patterns and recent activity. Samsung says the feature is designed to show relevant actions at the right moment, such as recommending a routine when the user arrives home or prompting a check-in if a family member using the Family Care function has been inactive for some time. The company also says the cards can suggest seasonal changes to the Home tab itself, reflecting shifting device priorities over the year.
Samsung has also expanded SmartThings’ local control capabilities. The app can now manage devices on the same Wi-Fi network even when the internet is unavailable, and the company says this can cut response times by about 30% compared with cloud-based control. SmartThings switches automatically between local and cloud access depending on whether the mobile device is at home or away. Samsung has also added an Offline Device Diagnostics tool, which is intended to simplify the process of updating network details across registered devices when the home connection changes.
The update goes further by adding support for Matter 1.6, the latest version of the smart home standard. Samsung says this widens compatibility while strengthening security, and it brings four new device categories into the SmartThings ecosystem: energy meters, closures for doors and gates, irrigation devices and soil sensors. In practical terms, that means the platform can now cover a broader range of home automation and monitoring use cases, from power tracking to garden watering.
According to Samsung, the redesigned experience is not limited to phones. The new Home tab and SmartThings Now are also available on select Samsung Smart TVs, Family Hub refrigerators, Windows devices and Samsung appliances with 7-inch or 9-inch displays that support SmartThings. PhoneArena, which highlighted the rollout, described the changes as a long-awaited usability improvement for an app that had previously felt cluttered. The overall direction is clear: Samsung is trying to make SmartThings more immediate, more resilient and more closely integrated with the rest of its hardware.
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