A Galaxy brand ambassador since the Unpacked event in July 2023, Son has partnered with Samsung on the new SmartThings campaign. With a focus on Son’s perspective, the campaign focuses particularly on entertainment, health and saving energy, all of which are areas of high interest among customers globally. The video, which showcases Son living an upgraded daily lifestyle in a series of interviews throughout, will be released through Samsung’s global social channels. All the devices in the video are seamlessly connected within the SmartThings ecosystem. The devices included are not only conventional home appliances such as TVs, air conditioners and refrigerators, but also an array of other devices like speakers and lights.

An Energy-Saving Routine, Thanks to SmartThings Energy and SmartThings Routines

Energy conservation is front and center in the video, as it is showcased through the use of key features of the SmartThings app, such as the SmartThings Energy and SmartThings Routines.

SmartThings Energy allows real-time monitoring of energy consumption from various devices like air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and TVs. It activates AI Energy Mode¹ before usage reaches higher pricing tiers, which effectively reduces electricity expenses.

With the SmartThings Routines feature, users automatically control household appliances based on specified times and conditions. Son demonstrates this in the campaign video with the “Going Out Routine,” which automatically turns appliances off when he leaves his house. Thanks to this function, Son can pay more attention to other things to do before going out while also reducing unnecessary energy consumption, which leads to a more efficient daily routine.

Harmonize Leisure Time With Music Sync and Hue Sync

Apart from functions that save energy, SmartThings boasts features that enhance leisure time at home. Music Sync² creates a dynamic home atmosphere by synchronizing lighting connected to SmartThings with music played on a Galaxy device. Hue Sync³ performs a similar function but with Samsung smart TVs, offering users an immersive viewing experience as they enjoy their favorite movies, live events or video games, etc.

In the video, Son makes use of these features through adaptive lighting, which sets a relaxed mood for him at home. Also featured is Gaming Mode, which Son uses to immerse himself in his favorite video games by syncing the color and movement of his home lighting with on-screen action.

Monitoring Health With the Galaxy Watch

The Galaxy Watch can provide users with real-time workout data, such as heart rate, calories burned and exercise duration. With SmartThings, Son is able to get the best use out of this feature by simultaneously doing core exercises and watching a football match on TV. While watching the match, he can see the data from his workout on his TV screen.⁴ This innovative integration enables individuals to exercise effectively while watching TV.

Commenting on his participation in the campaign, Son said, “The system operates automatically, which makes the experience very simple. Through SmartThings, I’ve found myself enjoying my time at home more while saving energy. It’s easy!”

“Everyday SmartThings with Son” can be found at Samsung’s official YouTube and Instagram channels.

¹ Available only for models that support AI Energy Mode. Prior to use, SmartThings Energy Service in the SmartThings app needs to be installed.
² Compatible lighting must be purchased separately and connected to the SmartThings app.
³ Compatible lighting must be purchased separately; paid subscription of the Hue Sync app is required through Samsung TV app.
⁴ Available from 2024; availability and the timing of support may vary by country and region.

Samsung Electronics 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 Matrix¹ 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 TVs² 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  Viewership from September 2021 to August 2022 compared to viewership from September 2020 to August 2021

⁴ Available on Galaxy Watch4 series and Galaxy Watch5 series.

To help you get through your busy day, Samsung Electronics has put together a team. With the SmartThings app on the Galaxy Z Fold3 leading the way, Samsung’s latest washer and dryer, Neo QLED 8K and the Bespoke Jet Bot AI+ are ready to team up to help you get ready.

Read on to find out how Team Samsung helps its user ‘A’, breeze through his busy morning.

Good Morning Mode Opens the Curtains and Displays the Weather

A was watching his favorite movie last night and fell asleep late. He ended up missing the alarm on his smartphone, but there’s no need to worry. All he needs to do to get ready for the day is simply unfold his Galaxy Z Fold3 and activate Good Morning Mode in SmartThings.¹ Once he’s done that, the curtains that were closed so he could get a good night’s sleep automatically open up and the lights in his home switch on to help him begin his morning in a bright mood.²

One of the most important factors to consider when getting ready to go out is the weather. It’s the first thing to check before choosing your outfit and deciding whether or not to take an umbrella with you. Because Good Morning Mode displays the weather automatically through A’s Neo QLED, there’s no need to use the remote to check the weather.

A Washer That Chooses the Best Wash Cycle While Staying Eco-Conscious

A has picked out an outfit of the day that’s appropriate for the weather, but he forgot to start his laundry. Luckily, Team Samsung can select the best wash cycle and get his laundry done on time even when he’s not around.

Here’s how it works. First, open up the SmartThings app, tap on Laundry Recipe and choose the color, soil level, and types of clothes you want to wash in your washer. Wash cycles will differ depending on the color and soil level of the clothes, and whether you want to wash shirts or things like socks. The feature will automatically choose the best wash cycle based on your input.

The Laundry Planner feature allows you to specify when you’d like the load to finish, so your clothes will be fully dry and look good to go when you need them.

Whipping Up a Delicious Breakfast With SmartThings Cooking

A hearty breakfast is a must for starting off the day with lots of energy. Luckily for A, Team Samsung makes it easy to pick out a recipe for a great meal.

After receiving a recommendation on his Galaxy Z Fold3 using SmartThings Cooking, A automatically sends the recipe to the smart oven and starts cooking. When it’s all done, he can receive a notification through his Galaxy Watch, Family Hub, or TV.

Forgot to Turn Off Your Lights or Devices? Don’t Worry With Away Mode

After putting on some fresh, clean clothes and finishing a delicious breakfast, it’s finally time for A to head out the door. With SmartThings’ Away Mode,³ if A realizes that he forgot to turn off a light or the TV as he’s heading out the door, he won’t need to head back inside to do so. The feature allows you to control not just the lights and the TV, but devices like robotic vacuum cleaners (RVC) as well. In addition, if you have a pet who’ll be left alone at home, SmartThings Pet⁴ offers peace of mind by allowing you to monitor your furry friend.

Monitoring Energy Usage With SmartThings Energy

After Team Samsung helped him get ready and he headed out the door, while on his way to his destination, A became curious about how much energy he’d been consuming this month. Once he unfolded his Galaxy Z Fold3, he accessed the SmartThings Energy⁵ service, which offered him detailed insights on his energy usage.

For those who can’t afford to miss work or skip chores in this busy world, Team Samsung is here for you. Experience a smarter and more relaxing start to your day with SmartThings.

For more information on Team Samsung, please visit samsung.com.

¹ SmartThings application must be installed and connected to devices in order to utilize its features. Application requirements may differ depending on the device.

² The electric curtains and lights described are products of a partner company, not Samsung. Therefore, quality assurance depends on the partner company’s standards.

³ SmartThings application must be installed and connected to devices in order to utilize its features. Application requirements may differ depending on the device.

⁴ SmartThings Pet is available for Bespoke Jet Bot AI+.

⁵ How much detergent, water, and energy can be saved can differ depending on the actual usage environment and the types of items being washed. SmartThings Energy service may not be supported by some devices.

Chanwoo Park, Head of Home IoT Business at Samsung Electronics

Samsung’s Bespoke Home vision offers consumers a home that is beautifully designed, full of flexible features, seamlessly connected, and inspired by its user. In this third installment of ‘People Behind Bespoke’, Chanwoo Park, Head of Home IoT Business at Samsung Electronics, explains how the Bespoke Home harnesses connectivity between smart devices to enrich and streamline everyday home experiences.

In the Bespoke Home, your appliances come together to create a personalized home experience that is much more than the sum of its parts. Through the connectivity provided by Samsung Electronics’ innovative technologies, your appliances work together to create synergies that maximize convenience and bring something special to even the most basic of everyday routines.

Connected Solutions for a Changing World

Within the connected ecosystem of the Bespoke Home, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity come together to completely transform the home experience. While AI is leveraged to study usage patterns and give better recommendations, IoT allows your appliances to seamlessly interconnect within your home.

What’s more, with the SmartThings app, a platform that supports thousands of devices across hundreds of brands, the ability to control the way it works is placed directly into the palm of your hand.

In practice, this means your washing machine will remember your favorite cycle and have it ready to go on laundry day. Once you choose what you want to make for dinner, your smart oven will receive the recipe and set itself to the right temperature. Your robot vacuum is even able to recognize your pet, and will send you a video so that you can keep an eye on them even when you’re away from home.

One Step Closer to Creating a Net Zero Home

With the recent rise of energy prices and the growing necessity for greener smart home solutions, Samsung envisaged SmartThings Energy as a way to empower users to be able to control the way energy is used throughout their homes and make smarter, greener decisions at home.

Thanks to the extensive growth of its partnership network, SmartThings Energy is growing into a smart energy management solution able to encompass the energy consumption of every appliance in a home, and even integrates such newer, renewable energy sources as solar.

In the UK, SmartThings Energy is now integrated with nearly 13 million Smart Meters, covering almost half of all UK homes. The service increases household energy IQ by harnessing the power of a smart home platform that analyzes user behavior and empowers users to take action and make a change – whether that change be switching to a new energy provider or garnering more awareness of their carbon footprint through monitoring.

A Whole New Food Prep Routine

Building a weekly meal plan that is varied and contains meals that are both tasty and nutritious can be a big task – and that’s before you actually start looking at what you actually have the ingredients to make.

SmartThings Cooking curates your entire food preparation experience by building weekly meal plans based on your specific tastes, dietary needs and the ingredients you have on-hand. Once your meals are planned out, SmartThings Cooking connects to various food and grocery retailers to order any ingredients you might be missing. When it comes time to cook, SmartThings ensures your range is preheated to the right temperature for the meal you’re preparing.

SmartThings Cooking also puts an end to fumbling for recipes and flipping between apps by bringing all the necessary searching, planning, purchasing and preparation together in one single place. With SmartThings, you can get all your meal planning done from wherever you are on your smartphone – or plan your meals right on the screen of your smart fridge – secure in the knowledge that your planning will be shared and easily accessible across your devices.

Connectivity for Pet Care

In addition to making your life more comfortable, connectivity in the Bespoke Home is now capable of improving the life of your furry friends, too. With its ability to monitor pets and connect to other smart devices, Samsung’s Bespoke Jet Bot AI+ and SmartThings Pet allow you to see what your pets are doing in real-time and make the environment more comfortable for them from wherever you are.

While going about its cleaning duties, your Bespoke Jet Bot AI+ recognizes when your pet comes into view, starts recording and sends the videos straight to your phone. After receiving these real-time updates, you can then use SmartThings Pet on your phone to adjust the settings on your smart air conditioner, air purifier and lights back home to make sure your pet is as comfortable as possible while you’re away.

Give Your Clothes the Care They Deserve

The clothes we wear every day are important mainstays of our lives, but maintaining sensitive and specialty items can prove complicated, especially given that properly cleansing our garments has become particularly important in the current climate.

SmartThings Clothing Care recommends optimal cycles for the items you’re washing based on material type, your usage patterns, the current season and more. A comprehensive smart wardrobe management system, SmartThings Clothing Care also monitors detergent levels, and can even order more detergent from online retailers when you’re running low.

With SmartThings, your Bespoke AirDresser and smart washer communicate with one another to share information and deliver personalized cycles and settings. Auto Cycle Link then matches the settings on your dryer to your wash settings to ensure your clothes are getting the consistent treatment that is just right for their garment type.

Committed to a Sustainable Bespoke Home Experience

With Bespoke Home, Samsung is dedicating itself to bringing an end to the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. We have committed to making all of our current and future products IoT-ready in order to realize our vision for a more connected world.

The deep customizability we are delivering with Bespoke Home is present at many different levels of the products that make up the portfolio – from the range of Bespoke colors the products come in to the ways you can tailor their usability to realize your own connected home vision. The Bespoke Home works with you on how you like to cook, how you like the temperature and air in your home and how you like to care for your clothes. When your preferences shift, your Bespoke Home is right there with you, happy to adjust to ensure you are enjoying the highest possible levels of comfort and convenience.

However, in today’s world, convenience alone is no longer enough – our appliances must also find ways to contribute to a more sustainable future. To this end, Samsung introduced SmartThings Energy with the direct purpose of allowing you to monitor your energy information in real-time in order to better manage how energy is being used in your home. In addition to supporting most Samsung appliances, SmartThings Energy is being expanded to a range of other devices and solutions to allow you to make smarter, more environmentally conscious decisions across every aspect of your home and lifestyle.

by Chanwoo Park

(VP and Head of IoT Business, Digital Appliances Business, Samsung Electronics)

Sustainability has always been a central theme for us designers; we understand the crucial role design plays when it comes to creating a sustainable future. So at a time when caring for our environment has become ever more important, let us take the opportunity to commemorate World Environment Day by sharing our vision for a better tomorrow through design.

Don-tae Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of the Corporate Design Center at Samsung Electronics

It will certainly take time to fully achieve environmental sustainability in a way that everyone can benefit from. For many, environmental issues may have been difficult to relate to until they’ve started to experience tangible changes in their daily lives, such as using air purifiers due to fine dust problems or wearing masks to prevent the spread of viral diseases. From a design perspective, even if initiatives such as waste minimization, upcycling and energy efficiency maximization are put into place, there is still always more to be done. On top of this, designers always need to consider the aesthetics of their design in addition to its environmental footprint.

There are three main principles behind the concept of sustainable design. The first is the Eco-design Process. This is where eco-friendly initiatives, such as low energy consumption and high energy efficiency, are implemented throughout the entirety of a concept’s design process, from planning through to development. An example of this would be the upcycling approach Samsung harnessed when producing special edition Galaxy S20+ cases. In order to develop cases that utilized end-of-life PET water bottles, Samsung partnered with premium Danish textile brand Kvadrat. The collaboration saw over two years of sustainable development and planning to ensure that the end products would be both aesthetically relevant and eco-friendly. The resulting manufacture process differed from that of conventional cases in that it harnessed recycled yarns to create a substantial material to work with; from sourcing these recycled materials to ensuring the products passed Samsung’s stringent reliability standards, the entire design process had sustainability built into it.

Samsung’s sustainable Galaxy S20+ cases, created in collaboration with Kvadrat

The second key principle of sustainable design is to create resonance with those who use the products by involving consumers’ considerations in the eco-design process. Samsung’s recently introduced ‘eco-packaging’ for its global lifestyle TV products is one such example. The innovative cardboard packaging, which serves both as protection for the TV product and can also be used in numerous ways as a piece of sustainable furniture, was developed out of the understanding that, when consumers purchased TVs, they were also often purchasing other furniture items for their homes at the same time. In order to give these consumers more eco-friendly furnishing options, the TV’s packaging comes with easy-to-follow DIY instructions on how to transform the versatile cardboard into a standalone shelf, a TV table or even a cat house. The end goal of this was to give consumers more options when looking to take part in environmental protection – and to help them avoid being wasteful.

Samsung’s lifestyle TV packaging can be repurposed to serve as a cat house

The final principle is to give consumers the tools they need to make real changes to their lifestyles towards living sustainably and protecting the environment. Samsung’s SmartThings Energy¹, part of Samsung’s IoT platform SmartThings, is a service that allows users to easily and comprehensively monitor their home’s electricity consumption. The service is designed to provide users with a more grounded understanding of their energy consumption and the effects their energy reduction efforts can have, as it provides this information in the form of visualizations. Such a service is capable of raising its users’ awareness of sustainable living and encouraging them to take steps towards more eco-friendly behavior.

In 1996, Samsung elevated design to being one of the company’s core competencies, and since then the company has consistently placed users at the center of its design philosophy. This is in line with Samsung’s mission of contributing to a better global society; if a sustainable society is not the end goal, then what use does any such action have? This is why the company opened design studios all over the world, including in Seoul, San Francisco, London, New Delhi, Beijing, Tokyo and São Paulo to research and study emerging sustainable design and lifestyle trends. Today, over 1,500 of our designers are studying sustainable development and design and collaborating to find solutions that are able to meet the company’s high sustainability expectations.

Samsung Electronics will continue to develop products and solutions that reflect the concerns of consumers who value ethical consumption and environmentally-friendly initiatives. We will also keep working towards creating a sustainable future for all with eco-friendly designs that have the consumer at their core.

¹ Currently only available in South Korea

by Don-tae Lee

[Executive Vice President and Head of the Corporate Design Center at Samsung Electronics]