Thread and Matter plans laid out that include key hub updates
Samsung’s SmartThings has outlined its Matter plans ahead of the big launch which, we’re hoping, is any day soon.
How to: Add Matter devices to SmartThings
SmartThings is one of the first brands to actually get Matter certified and has confirmed that its smart home hubs will act as Matter controllers for the new smart home standard.
The most recent Aeotec SmartThings Hub V3, the last Samsung-manufactured V2 Hub and the SmartThings dongle will all offer Matter controls via Wi-Fi and/or Ethernet, while the Aeotec hub will also be able to act as a Thread border router.
Explainer: What is Thread
If the Thread compatibility is a key ingredient for you and you’re rocking the an older smart home hub, our guide on migrating to the Aeotec Smart Home Hub will help you make the jump.
SmartThings already plays nicely with other connectivity standards such as Zigbee and Z-Wave and, therefore, adding Matter to the mix obviously expands a SmartThings ecosystem (although they won’t act as official Matter ‘bridges’ just yet).
Speaking to The Ambient ahead of the 2022 Samsung Developer Conference (SDC), which took place last week, Mark Benson, Head of SmartThings US explained how SmartThings’ experience with syncing with different protocols meant it was a major player in the formation of the Matter smart home standard.
“That experience is something that we definitely brought to the table, and that that includes all kinds of obvious things around just getting devices to work together in an interoperable way,” Benson explained.
“I think better than anybody, when it comes to aggregating this fragmented ecosystem of devices, it’s been a driving focus for SmartThings since the beginning.
“Just working across brands ands protocols, and being able to have a smart home that’s easy to manage, even though you have multiple brands in your home.”
At SDC Samsung used a new terminology – Calm Technology – to describe an overall improvement in “the way devices instantly work together, so consumers can save time on setup and get right into the experience.”
Benson explained to us how this approach will be extended to SmartThings and its Matter setup process.
“There is an explosion that we’re just beginning to see in the industry where consumers are ready to adopt,” he explained.
“But one of the biggest challenges is when you set up a smart home it takes quite a bit of knowledge to know how everything works together, what’s interoperable, and how to onboard things and how to troubleshoot problems when they happen.
“At Samsung SmartThings we’re working to make that as simple as we possibly can. And we’ve made great strides over the last 10 years as a company to integrate a pretty fragmented ecosystem,” he continued.
“But now with Matter and all of the support of all the major ecosystems, it really aims to solve one of the biggest barriers to adoption for the mass market, which is complexity.”
The Matter updates for the SmartThings hubs are expected to roll out as over-the-air updates later this month.
