The New Family Hub is the Heart of the Connected Home

On June 20, at Samsung 837 in New York City, Samsung Electronics partnered with Smart Kitchen Summit to assemble a panel of experts to discuss the various ways that new kitchen innovations are making life easier for families.

Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator was designed to do more than just store food; it was created to simplify daily life. The refrigerator harnesses the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) to offer a kitchen command center that’s interactive, multifunctional, and customizable for every family.

Family Hub’s large display and intuitive suite of apps not only streamline meals and food management, they offer entertainment and communication options as well. The refrigerator’s latest generation spans a total of 10 three- and four-door models in the U.S. that are designed to cater to consumers’ needs in the kitchen – the center of the home.

John Herrington, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Home Appliances at Samsung Electronics America, hosted the Samsung Family Hub 2017 Event and Smart Kitchen Summit at Samsung 837 in New York City on June 20, 2017.

The Smart Kitchen Summit noted that we use our kitchens as much for connecting with friends and family as we do for preparing and sharing meals. The refrigerator is an important part of that story. With the new Family Hub, Samsung has made it possible for households to enjoy an entirely new level of connection at the heart of their home.

Transforming Life in the Kitchen

The new Family Hub’s advanced features remove the usual guesswork from food management. The refrigerator’s built-in View Inside cameras, for instance, allow users to digitally label their food with expiration dates, and use a mobile device to peek inside their fridge from wherever they may be.

Family Hub’s new voice-recognition technology makes it even easier to take advantage of the refrigerator’s convenient features. When family members are busy preparing food or entertaining in the kitchen, simple voice commands provide a means to request a recipe or weather report, add an item to the grocery list, start playing music, or see what’s inside the fridge.

This advanced technology has been integrated across several Family Hub apps, and leverages contextual awareness to offer users a personalized experience that allows them to utilize familiar, colloquial commands.

Partnerships with grocery-delivery service Instacart and Groceries by MasterCard add additional convenience to users’ food management. Currently available in the U.S., the easy-to-use apps allow users to replenish their fridge with ease by ordering groceries directly from their Family Hub fridge. Other region and country specific apps are available and make the Family Hub more geographically relevant.

The new Family Hub refrigerator.

Enhanced for Family Communications       

One aspect that has proven particularly popular with users since launch is the fridge’s ability to foster meaningful expression.

The refrigerators’ Whiteboard, Memo and Photo Album functions transform the touchscreen display into a digital bulletin board where family members can share photos, update calendars, hand-write notes to one another, and even send posts remotely with their phone.*

The new Family Hub’s updated interface streamlines those tasks, and will now allow each member of the family to create their own, unique profile. These profiles may be customized with avatars or, beginning later this year, users’ personal photos.

Family Hub’s latest entertainment partnerships with Spotify and TuneIn – two of the world’s leading media-streaming services – provide more options for users to bring their favorite music and programming into the kitchen.

An attendee at Samsung Family Hub 2017 event gets an up-close look at Samsung’s Family Hub Refrigerator.

A New Level of Connection

Later this year, Family Hub will also feature support for Samsung Connect, an app that made its debut with the release of the Galaxy S8 and offers users streamlined control over their connected homes.

With the app’s integration, Family Hub users will be able to seamlessly control selected Samsung smart devices – including smart lights, door locks, security cameras, speakers and other household products – with a few taps of their refrigerator’s display. This additional level of ‘smart’ connection will further cement the refrigerators’ position as a central hub for IoT-connected homes.

Owners of first-generation Family Hub models will also receive a software upgrade that will provide many of these new functions and apps.

Samsung’s latest enhancements to the Family Hub lineup demonstrate its commitment to utilizing innovative connections to deliver new levels of convenience to consumers’ homes.

*Utilizing this function requires Family Hub’s Smart Home smartphone app.