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.

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^[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.

Samsung Electronics has announced its keynote speakers and program for the Samsung Developer Conference 2021 (SDC21), which will be held on October 26^th. The annual conference, fully virtual this year, will bring together developers and creators to help shape the future of consumer experiences.

At SDC21, the company plans to share its latest updates in software, services and platforms with thousands of developers and creators to enable smarter, more seamless connectivity across Galaxy devices. The attendees will be able to discover potential opportunities to create cutting-edge solutions for millions, leveraging the expansive Samsung ecosystem.

DJ Koh, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics’ IT and Mobile Communications Business Division, will open SDC21 by addressing which direction Samsung’s strategy would head to bring innovation to consumer experience.

The following keynote speakers are lined up to discuss strategies from Samsung for platforms and ecosystems with topics ranging from security, privacy to various platforms including Bixby, SmartThings and Tizen:

• Daniel Ahn, Senior Vice President, Mobile Platform Center
• Samantha Osborne, Vice President, SmartThings Inc.
• Jeongsook Lee, Vice President, Customer Experience Office
• Yongjae Kim, Senior Vice President, Visual Display Software R&D
• Bill Mandel, Vice President, Visual Solution Lab, Samsung Research America
• Janghyun Yoon, Executive Vice President, Mobile Software R&D

SDC21’s highlight sessions consist of three groups. The first one, Platforms Designed For Connected Experiences will explore Bixby and SmartThings’ cross-device experience and how Samsung plans to make the vision of the future Smart Home a reality.

The second session, Innovating Mobile Experience Across the Samsung Galaxy Ecosystem, will take a look at the One UI 4’s innovations and foldable device design process to help developers optimize their own apps for a growing number of foldable devices.

The third session, The Evolution of Tizen and Innovative Screen Experiences, will peer into new Smart TV services from Samsung and how its ecosystem has been enhanced with Tizen 6.5.

Further, developers who want to keep abreast of industry insights and state-of-the-art technology will find Tech Talk sessions featuring top experts from Samsung very helpful. For those interested in the latest Samsung technology, it is highly recommended to visit SDC21’s Digital Tech Hub, a digital exhibition of Samsung technology with easily accessible resources.

Code Lab will offer an opportunity for developers to boost their skills with a hands-on coding experience with sample applications for testing simple scenarios. Developers can even try their codes on cutting-edge devices like Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G via remote access.

In recognition of content developers for excellence in design, innovation, quality and performance, the winners of the 2021 Best of Galaxy Store Awards will be announced in SDC21.

The SDC21 will be broadcast on the Samsung Newsroom and the SDC website on October 26, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. For more information about the SDC21, please visit https://developer.samsung.com/sdc. Further information can also be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and Facebook (@samsungdev) with the hashtag #SDC21.

Creating Opportunities for Developers through Open, Scalable AI and IoT Platforms

To help consumers discover new ways Bixby can work with them to get things done more quickly and easily, Samsung launched Bixby Marketplace earlier this year in the U.S. and Korea, creating a way for developers to introduce their Bixby capsules to millions of Bixby users in those countries. In the past six months, the size of the Bixby developer community has doubled. And starting in 2020, the Bixby Marketplace will expand gradually, enabling developers to offer their services across more Samsung devices.
 
To make it easier for developers to create new experiences on its AI platform and ensure consumers have more intuitive experience, Samsung announced enhanced capabilities in the Bixby Developer Studio at SDC19.
 

• New Bixby Templates makes it easy for developers to create capsules using pre-existing forms so that they don’t have to start from scratch.
• Enhanced Bixby Views enable developers to build capsules with a consistent design even beyond smartphones—to televisions, tablets, smart watches and refrigerators.
• Developers can now register their capsules under Natural Language Categories. When users ask Bixby for help related to a category—such as radio, news, or navigation—Bixby suggests a capsule that can help them get what they need more quickly and easily, even without having to call out exact name of the capsule.

 
More consumers now are seeing how seamlessly connected devices and services can make everyday life easier. Developers can scale their device and service offerings through Samsung’s IoT platform, SmartThings. Already, developers and partners have brought connected experiences to more than 45 million monthly active users globally and thousands of compatible devices, and the platform is expected to grow further with the Work as a SmartThings Hub (WASH) program, which allows partners like network operators to embed SmartThings Hub software into their devices.
 
To help developers build on and integrate existing devices with the SmartThings platform, Samsung announced new capabilities for developers:
 

• The new Rules API brings to life more automated smart home experiences to reflect individual daily routines across a broad range of SmartThings devices.
• Samsung is launching the SmartThings Device SDK Beta program in early 2020 to enable more third-party manufacturers to create SmartThings-compatible devices.

Samsung continues to invite developers to actively participate in its ecosystem and supports the developer community with several incentive programs—including the Best of Galaxy Store Award, the Samsung Mobile Design Competition, Bixby DevJam and the Samsung Mobile Security Reward program.
 

Inspiring Developers with New Experiences Across Devices

Samsung continues to refine the mobile experience to allow users to focus on what matters most to them. One UI 2 includes new features that de-clutter the user interface—making it easier for people to interact naturally while also making it easier on their eyes. And now, to make both the developer and the user experiences consistent across devices, Samsung is expanding the use of One UI 2 beyond smartphones to tablets, wearables and new form factors, including foldable category.
 
With the launch of Galaxy Fold, Samsung designed a first-of-its kind mobile experience that is much more than a foldable device. Samsung, alongside hundreds of developers and partners, created an entire foldable ecosystem that continues to grow and opens up new possibilities to the mobile experience. As promised at SDC2018, Samsung will continue to explore a range of new form factors in the foldable category. And at SDC19, Samsung invited developers and users alike to join the exploration of exciting new use cases and user experiences.
 
To deliver the best possible TV viewing experience, Samsung is also investing in 8K technologies. With AI ScaleNet, Samsung has made it possible to stream high-quality 8K videos on networks with lower bandwidth capabilities. Samsung has also announced new tools that make it easier for developers to bring new experiences across the nearly 100 million Smart TVs that are powered by Tizen.
 

• Wits automatically uploads a code edit to the TV, so developers can see their update almost immediately, significantly trimming development time.
• EasyST makes testing content playback easier because developers don’t need to build their own test app to make sure their content is streaming as intended.
• TIFA (Tizen Identifier for Advertising) gives consumers the option to limit ad tracking or opt-out of targeted advertising
• Samsung is making Tizen TV OS available to third-party TV makers for the first time.

End-to-End Security Built in Every Solution and Experience

Emerging technologies, such as IoT, AI and 5G, are bringing new capabilities and opportunities to the developer landscape. For Samsung, it means providing the community with the tools and programs necessary to deliver more secure and more reliable solutions.
 
Secure Development Lifecycle delivers systematic reviews at every phase of the development, supply chain, and manufacturing process. To give both developers and users peace of mind, Samsung offers the Knox SDK, allowing partners and app developers to integrate advanced security solutions into their apps and services. In addition, Samsung has been working with German government agencies, especially BSI, and industry partners on developing a mobile-enabled eID for digital services to support customers and governments by developing a solid foundation for trusted identity services.
 
Samsung invites developers and partners on its journey to bring new and increasingly secure experiences to life. For more information about working with Samsung and the Samsung Developer Conference 2019, please visit sdc.developer.samsung.com. Further information can also be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and using the hashtag #SDC19.
 
* All services and programs mentioned above may vary by region.