The smart home is about to change. Soon, you won’t have to choose a smart lightbulb or a door lock just because it works with your smart speaker. Instead, you’ll be able to buy a smart device, take it home, and it will work with any voice assistant or app of your choice. At least, that’s the promise behind Matter, the new standard created by Samsung, Google, Apple, and Amazon. Best of all, you are not locked into the platform of your choice. If you decide to switch from Google Home to SmartThings, or use Amazon Alexa with Apple HomeKit, any Matter-enabled device can be taken with you.
This shift in the smart home means that the major platforms that help us run our connected devices are also changing. edge Sit down with Mark Benson, the newly appointed head of Samsung’s home automation division SmartThings USA, to learn about its plans to adopt Matter.
Mark Benson, the new head of Samsung SmartThings US, discusses plans to adopt Matter on stage at CES 2022.
Launched on Kickstarter 10 years ago, SmartThings is one of the only independent consumer smart home hubs still active and active in the early days of the DIY smart home craze. It built its business on the ability of its namesake hub to connect devices from different manufacturers, allowing you to control them all from one app.
While there are more “hubs” today (including Amazon Alexa and Google Home), the SmartThings hub is one of the few consumer-grade devices with multiple radios, including Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave, that allow it Control a wider range of smart home devices. It also works with cloud-to-cloud software services and is one of the most compatible smart home platforms. Voice assistants are also supported by Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, as well as Samsung’s Bixby.
“User experience is the competitive space that differentiates platforms and companies”
SmartThings, acquired by Samsung in 2014, has become the electronics giant’s primary platform for connected devices. The app is pre-installed on all Samsung phones, and if you buy any connected Samsung device (such as a refrigerator, TV, or washing machine), you will need to download the SmartThings app to use any smart features. The app is available for iOS and Android phones and includes one of the more powerful automation platforms.
Since the acquisition, Samsung has stopped making any SmartThings hardware, offloading the standalone hub and many sensors to device maker Aeotec. The company said it will focus all of its efforts on the SmartThings app and support Samsung’s connected products through software.
In 2021, it launched the Cooking, Air Care, Clothing Care and Pet Care sections of the SmartThings app to help users of Samsung products get the most out of their connected devices, and launched Smart Energy and Home Care for monitoring energy usage and maintenance Part of the demand for Samsung Electronics.
Samsung’s SmartThings app works with third-party connected devices and Samsung’s smart appliances.Image: Samsung
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Now that you’re leading the SmartThings platform, where do you want to take it?
Mark Benson: The industry has changed a lot since SmartThings launched. Architecturally, the platform must also evolve. We’ve been working hard to set up the platform for future scale and flexibility.
A lot of exciting things are happening in the smart home space. Consumers have never been more willing to add smart devices to their homes. With the pandemic, people are rediscovering and reimagining what their home will look like and how to make it better, which translates into excitement about smart home products.
SmartThings is really at the center of this movement that we’ve been in since 2012. I think we have a unique opportunity to bring our partners together to work on the new industry standard Matter.finally recognized by the industry [that connectivity] has been a barrier to adoption.
I do think that 10 years from now, we’ll look back at this year as an industry turning point — a fundamental change in the way companies work together to deliver actual collaborative work, not just in separate siloed ecosystems.
For some time, SmartThings had two parts: Samsung SmartThings and the original SmartThings. Samsung no longer makes any SmartThings hardware, and says future hubs will be software-based. Many users are worried about this shift. Can you talk about the roadmap going forward and how you’re moving the old SmartThings into the new SmartThings?
This is an evolution. It’s been happening for a while. We’re really trying to connect these worlds together. Our history has been the center and community of all the great innovations they bring. But we’ve also seen a massive explosion in adoption of SmartThings through Samsung appliances and TVs.
So there’s a divide between early adopters and innovators who really know how to run a smart home, and everyday users who have some smart, connected devices but don’t grasp the full scope of a connected home.
Future growth is really here [user], but that doesn’t mean we want to leave that early group behind. We want to build a bridge between the two and find ways the community can innovate to make the entire SmartThings platform better for everyone.
With the advent of Matter, what is the future of the SmartThings Center?
The standalone SmartThings V3 Hub and Aeotec SmartThings Hub will be updated to support Matter when they launch in the fall. SmartThings is more deeply integrated across the Samsung portfolio, with SmartThings Hub software built into select 2022 Samsung Smart TVs, Smart Displays and Family Hub refrigerators. These devices will also allow users to connect a variety of existing smart home devices, as they will be updated to support Matter as a controller as the new standard rolls out.
We also plan to support Matter as a controller on our SmartThings Hub V2. This will enable our existing users to connect and control Matter devices.
Samsung Family Hub refrigerators will be updated to support Matter.Image: Samsung
Will the built-in hub have any low power radios like the standalone hub? What about threads?
Low-power wireless protocols are an important part of Matter’s standard and are sure to appear in Samsung SmartThings products with built-in hub functionality. The actual implementation of the Thread technology will be detailed later, but Thread is really important to us. The SmartThings Dongle can communicate with Zigbee devices so that it can connect to various smart home devices.
You say Samsung is integrating Matter as a controller – does that mean Samsung’s connected devices (washing machines, robot vacuums, TVs, etc.) are not exposed to other Matter controllers (like Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit)?
really. This year, we’ll be focusing on bringing the Matter as a controller to multiple surfaces across Samsung’s portfolio. That means most 2022 Samsung smart TVs, smart displays, and Family Hub refrigerators. The SmartThings Hub does not act as a bridge to Matter, so non-Matter devices are not bridged or exposed to other Matter controllers. That said, Matter-enabled SmartThings hubs will continue to support existing devices and protocols (eg Zigbee, Z-Wave), providing SmartThings customers with flexible connectivity options.
Where do you think Matter will take SmartThings?
The competitive landscape is changing. It is inevitable that we have come this far. In the early days of the smart home, it was about “How do you connect devices?” and “Which platform is the most flexible in terms of supporting the most disparate kinds of protocols and devices?” It’s a fragmented world where we make everything work together .
Matter is helping simplify how devices connect. Now, how it’s connected is no longer a differentiator. Development and adoption of Matter may take some time. It won’t be all done at once, but it’s definitely the future.
SmartThings will compete differently in the future as connectivity becomes more standardized. User experience is the competitive space that sets platforms and companies apart — things around home use cases, cooking, caring for pets, managing energy usage, setting lighting just right, and locking doors at night. Getting these things to work and be simple to understand so users can control their home and manage their home well is why we’re excited about Matter.
At the same time, it really drives evolution and change in the competitive and collaborative realms.
SmartThings added a life section to its app last year to help automate cooking, air care, pet care and other household tasks using Samsung appliances.Image: Samsung
Why is Samsung SmartThings the leader here? Once Matter arrives, what makes users want to use SmartThings instead of another platform to run their smart home?
Hopefully the user experience is good enough to make it a differentiator. This will be very competitive as there are many companies striving to achieve the same goal of providing a great user experience and allowing customers to manage their Matter devices. But one of the biggest differentiators we have is the Samsung device mix. This is something no one else has.
Another thing is that SmartThings has an incredible routine engine for creating advanced automation. Other companies will continue to invest and improve there because it’s so important to do that. But that’s already where SmartThings excels. And we will continue to invest.
Interoperability and the ability to connect devices are being standardized. But connections are not where the competition happens. It’s the experience of using these things and how they work with the features you can access on these devices. This will continue to be a differentiator for SmartThings and Samsung.