I've been blown away by what Samsung SmartThings can do for the home. And I'm not talking about an ultra-modern apartment packed with the latest connected devices and smart gadgets – any household can connect their devices to make their lives easier using this awesome ecosystem.
Samsung SmartThings is one of the largest open ecosystems for controlling your smart home devices. It has over 150 million users worldwide, is available on both Android and iOS, and is compatible with voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
The SmartThings app can be viewed on your phone or tablet, or displayed on a Samsung RF9000 Family Hub Fridge Freezer with Beverage Centre, by mirroring the screen from your phone to the appliance. Either way, the SmartThings app is the gateway to making all your gadgets and appliances talk to one another – and you don't need to have a home full of Samsung devices to benefit from its capabilities.
Samsung washing machines, refrigerators, ovens and robot vacuum cleaners can be controlled with the SmartThings app. SmartThings also works with any brand of phone, and is compatible with thousands of smart devices from brands such as Amazon, Google, Philips Hue and Ring.
It can also connect to some of the best video doorbells, and with the best speakers, and can sync with the best smart lights to create an immersive light show – even one that's in tune with your on-screen entertainment.
And your connected appliances can do more than 'just' doing the cooking or the laundry.
Your Samsung oven can cook foods based on the ingredients you have,or the food you want to eat, and the app will even make price comparisons to ensure that you can save money on the ingredients in your shopping bag. The oven will then set the cooking temperature and duration automatically when the user selects ‘Recipe to oven’ from a recipe, meaning that if you (or anyone in the home) don't want to be 'chef' for the night then the oven can do much of the work for you – even the shopping.
And then we have Samsung washing machines. These can run an intelligent wash cycle based on what you want to wash, with the machine suggesting the best wash based on the information you give it.
The washing machines can hold enough detergent for 16-18 washes, meaning that regularly topping up the detergent drawer is a thing of the past. The 20-year warranty on the machines' Digital Inverter motors is equally impressive; the motors are designed to run much quieter and more smoothly that ordinary machines, which is perfect for open-plan living.
While we're on the topic of large appliances I thought I should mention Samsung's Homecare Wizard, which helps you to care for your appliances. This can be accessed via SmartThings, and among other things you can receive push notifications about the health of your oven, washing machine, or dishwasher so that you can keep it performing at its best.
The SmartThings app makes setting up your appliances, whether large or small, easy. You can either scan the QR code or enter the set-up code, or scan for nearby devices by brand. You may need to connect to a hub device (such as an Amazon Echo Dot), and you may need to log in to another app associated with that particular brand.
If you're looking to start building your connected home I think the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem is as good a way to go as any; it's future-proofed with the Matter 1.0 connectivity standard, and all the brands that matter (no pun intended) are on board. What's not to love?
