Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. held its annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) today in San Francisco, bringing together developers, creators and designers to explore seamless, connected experiences powered by Samsung.

During the event, Samsung shared more about its commitment to creating simplified, game-changing customer experiences, including the company’s updated vision for SmartThings as it evolves from a connectivity platform to an enabler of smarter lifestyles. From deeper integration with Bixby to seamless connectivity with Matter-compatible devices, SmartThings is creating a richer, more open world that empowers all users to streamline their connections and their daily lives.

“At Samsung, we continuously innovate our devices, platforms and services to be simpler and more convenient. I am proud to share the next generation of our work, like SmartThings, to further our collaboration with partners and developers,” said Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. “As technologies become more complex, we will always search for ways to make life easier, more connected, and more flexible, so our consumers can focus on what matters most.”

Connecting Platforms and Devices with Calm Technology

Samsung’s vision of seamless connectivity is inspired by the philosophy of Calm Technology – where devices instantly work together, so consumers can save time on setup and get right into the experience. To realize this vision, Samsung reimagined SmartThings and its connected services and partnerships, including Samsung’s Hub Everywhere, extending its capabilities to the entire smart home with audio and visual data as well as SmartThings Energy, SmartThings Pet and SmartThings Cooking. Samsung also partnered with Philips Hue to integrate Philips Hue Sync right into Galaxy devices so smart home lighting can match with music.

The seamless experience will extend beyond Samsung’s ecosystem through SmartThings’ integration with Matter and Samsung’s membership in the Home Connectivity Alliance. Google and Samsung have worked together to enable users to find and link their devices across platforms by building multi-admin feature on Matter devices. The collaboration will bring more devices and users into the connected home in the future.

Bixby has been integrated more deeply with SmartThings, a tool for developers to build more intelligent voice user interface experiences. As Samsung’s representative voice assistant platform, Bixby has evolved to become the on-device AI solution able to control individual Galaxy devices, as well as the cross-device experience throughout the Samsung ecosystem. With the new Bixby Home Studio, developers can now build differentiated, customized experiences for the SmartThings platform. In addition, Bixby will be even more widely available to users with support for Latin American Spanish, starting in November.

As the smart home is becoming more advanced, Samsung is introducing a new security paradigm, enabling Samsung devices to protect each other. Samsung Knox Matrix^[1] is a private blockchain based platform that turns eligible Samsung devices into a shield to protect users’ entire device ecosystem – from Galaxy devices to TVs and home appliances. Plus, users can customize personal privacy settings with the new Security and privacy dashboard, which scans for vulnerabilities, recommends security updates, and gives users data management options to keep privacy and security top of mind.

Personalized Services for Better Experiences

In the past year, Samsung TV Plus — Samsung’s free, ad-supported streaming TV and video (FAST) platform available on Samsung Smart TVs^[2] and mobile devices— reached 100% growth in viewership^[3], and projects three billion hours streamed by the end of the year. To build on this momentum, Samsung TV Plus has expanded its offering by adding partnerships with Lionsgate and Vice Media, providing 8K video on demand. Samsung TV Plus has also gone through a redesign, to reflect its extraordinary variety of content with more than 1,600 channels across 24 countries. Samsung TV Plus is the premium choice for a seamless ad experience, where stream stitching makes ad playback simpler than ever.

After 10 years of service, Samsung’s Tizen operating system (OS) continues to offer best-in-class user experiences. The Samsung Gaming Hub brings better, faster and more convenient access to gaming on Samsung Smart TVs, provided by industry-leading partners, such as Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Utomik and Amazon Luna. Samsung Gaming Hub bridges expertise in hardware and software to integrate features like AI Upscaling and multitask functions to make gaming on Samsung Smart TVs an immersive, optimized experience.

Tizen OS is also expanding to offer NFTs support with partners like Art Token, laCollection and Nifty Gateway. For B2B customers and developers, Samsung is providing B2B APIs specific to industries and use cases like Syncplay, which allows content to be synchronized and played in multiple signages. Tizen is also introducing SALT, a new content conversion solution to display the highest-quality HDR10+ content on supported TVs.

Your Galaxy, Your Way with One UI 5

By introducing the new One UI 5, Samsung has empowered users to easily customize their device’s look and feel, while enhancing productivity and providing amazing experiences across devices and platforms. One UI 5 brings more personalized experiences with custom-built Modes and Routines, and a Dynamic Lock screen that displays multiple visuals on your phone, your Galaxy Watch and other One UI 5 devices. With the new Bixby Text Call feature, Bixby Voice will answer calls on your behalf and share typed messages with the caller, speaking aloud as if you had answered. One UI 5 also introduces new daily health solutions to help track health and wellness in one place. This includes the Samsung Privileged Health SDK, which enables developers to build apps that leverage the BioActive Sensor on the Galaxy Watch^[4].

Future-Forward Investment and Research

Samsung Research is looking beyond today’s horizon to innovate for a better tomorrow, full of relentless innovation and open collaboration. Samsung Research is making its robot arm manipulation code available on GitHub, enabling academics, researchers and developers to examine new ideas in robotic manipulation.

The team at Samsung Research was also inspired by the new wellness features Samsung has introduced, particularly on the Galaxy Watch5. To find new use-cases leveraging these features, Samsung Research is working with universities and healthcare institutions that will explore areas like heart health, stress, blood pressure, lung health and neuroscience. As a result, Samsung is offering a full stack SDK – the Samsung Health Stack – which will jumpstart research into important health fields and spark new development.

Samsung invites developers, creators, partners and more to join in on its commitment to open collaboration and seamless experiences.

For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2022, please visit developer.samsung.com.

—

^[1] Starting as early as late 2023, Samsung Knox Matrix will be initially available on selected Samsung devices. Support for other manufacturers’ products will follow later.

^[2] Samsung TV Plus is available for selected Samsung Smart TVs only.

^[3] Comparison between viewership from September 2020 to August 2021 and viewership from September 2021 to August 2022.

^[4] Available on Galaxy Watch4 series and Galaxy Watch5 series.

Samsung Electronics unveiled a series of new tools ahead of the Samsung Developer Conference 2022 (SDC2022) that will aid developers and communities in shaping health, wellness and safety habits for consumers everywhere. These tools include the Samsung Privileged Health SDK program for select partners, the Fall Detection API to support user safety, Samsung’s new end-to-end research solution for educational, clinical and healthcare programmers, as well as ongoing opportunities for partners with Health Connect.

“Samsung’s health foundation is rooted in our advanced hardware and sensor technology and is bolstered by our open ecosystem and collaborative approach,” said TaeJong Jay Yang, Executive Vice President and the Head of Health R&D Team at Mobile eXperience Business, Samsung Electronics. “That is why I am excited to announce expanded developer tools, APIs and partner offerings that allow third-party experts, research centres and universities to advance wearable tracking and insight capabilities for a wider health, wellness and safety.”

Samsung Privileged Health SDK: Advancing Preventative Safety in Driving

Samsung is collaborating with select industry leaders to develop personalized health services. With safety as one of Samsung’s focus areas, these collaborations will deliver all-new preventative tools to make roads safer by identifying early signs of driver fatigue and stress.

Samsung’s work with Tobii, a global leader in eye-tracking and attention computing that develops software to monitor drowsiness, is one example. If users choose to, Samsung’s Privileged Health SDK enables Tobii to sense real-time heart rate captured by Galaxy Watch sensors and process them to determine the user’s level of drowsiness. Also, Harman, a leader in connected car technology, audio innovations, and IoT solutions, has recently introduced Ready Care, a complete automotive in-cabin sensing and tailored solution for driver safety and comfort. In addition to distraction, fatigue and vital sign sensing, users can allow Ready Care to measure cognitive load and stress level and can provide suggestions for alternative routes to lower a driver’s stress.

Health Services: New Fall Detection API for Enhanced Safety Capabilities

Health Services provides APIs that allow developers and third parties to harness the powerful sensors and algorithms on the Galaxy Watch for more accurate and advanced health offerings. Samsung is introducing a new API to the ecosystem that offers adjustable sensitivity for Fall Detection, strengthening preventative safety and setting the stage for even more potential offerings.

Developers can now create services using Galaxy Watch’s Fall Detection algorithms that sense a user’s stumble or fall by combining different sensors including an accelerometer and gyroscope. This API enables development of apps for users who may encounter unexpected accidents. Furthermore, Galaxy users are even able to adjust sensitivity levels – whether standing still, moving, or exercising – via the Galaxy Wearable app. Like sleep tracking that senses restless movements or falls from bed to paint a more complete picture of a user’s sleep, this API opens all new opportunities for developers and users alike.

End-to-End Research Solution: Accelerating Medical Service and Research

Samsung is also introducing an open-source project that provides end-to-end solutions combining SDK, backend system and portal for a variety of health applications. This all-in-one healthcare toolset empowers research and clinical experiences — starting at the developer level — by delivering advanced insights through Galaxy Watches and wearables to support medical research at institutions, hospitals, wellness centres and beyond.

Researchers can use this open-source project to build modules that enable participants to join a study in a frictionless and informed way, streamlining the onboarding process. Flexible survey templates are also in place to satisfy the ever-changing needs of organizations. From there, relevant data and insights are gathered more easily from wearable devices, while participants are guided with actionable insights throughout the process. Encrypted participant data is then transmitted to the backend system where health and medical communities monitor and analyze the collected insights to inform patient treatment plans, upcoming research and much more. More details of the new project will be announced at SDC22 keynote by Sebastian Seung, President and the Head of Samsung Research.

Health Connect: Greater Insights and Data Control

Health Connect, announced in collaboration with Google during the spring of 2022, offers developers a single set of APIs enabling the seamless creation of new fitness and health experiences. Currently available in beta, Health Connect offers users centralized privacy controls that make it easy to give permission to the health and fitness apps they want to share their on-device data with. Now, Samsung Health and Fitbit, along with leading health and fitness apps including Leap Fitness, MyFitnessPal and Withings have adopted Health Connect to enable a more impactful and holistic wellness experience. And with a user’s permission, app developers can leverage certain data shared through Health Connect for use in their own applications in order to provide users with a more complete picture of their health.

Samsung is committed to giving its community – including users, third parties, developers and beyond – enhanced tools and resources to build and benefit from more connected and diverse health services. As part of Samsung’s overarching wellness initiatives, the company will continue to deliver an expansive ecosystem – which the Samsung community will hear more about during the SDC22 that empowers users with more insights and information on health and wellbeing.

The Canadian Samsung community can tune into the keynote livestream on October 12, 2022 at 1:00PM EST by visiting Samsung Canada Newsroom or at www.samsungdeveloperconference.com.