Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announces today at CES 2021 that it is making one of its most popular Family Hub features available in the SmartThings app. Family Hub won its sixth consecutive CES Innovation Award this year—a testament to Samsung’s innovative strides in offering families smarter and more seamless kitchen experiences.

SmartThings Cooking recommends recipes that fit your tastes and dietary restrictions, then builds weekly meal plans to match. As you’re cooking, it sends recipe instructions directly to synced Samsung cooking devices—so Family Hub can order groceries and the Front Control Slide-in Range¹  can automatically preheat, while SmartThings Cooking guides you through every step of meal prep.

“Families around the world embraced smarter cooking and streamlined meal planning with Samsung’s Family Hub,” said John Herrington, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Home Appliances.  “We are proud to bring these features to more than 33 million people who use the SmartThings app—and we hope to inspire those who are cooking, and experimenting, more than ever.”

Smarter Meal Planning from Screen to Table: A New Kitchen Experience

As people spend more time in the kitchen and seek out new recipes, Samsung’s SmartThings Cooking service can help by bringing all of your Samsung kitchen appliances together, offering a seamless journey that allows you to search, plan, purchase, and prep weekly meals via the SmartThings app on your Family Hub or smartphone—a single platform that you can access anywhere, any time.

SmartThings Cooking recommends personalized recipes based on your unique taste and preferences—as well as what’s on hand—to curate personalized recipe recommendations, so you can plan meals for your family more efficiently. You can even browse the categorized recipe collections to match your craving, ingredient, or mood. SmartThings Cooking also allows you to enjoy convenient one-stop grocery shopping through Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, and Amazon Fresh, using the Whisk network.

Every recipe is laid out to guide you through the simplified cooking process, timing and explaining each step like an at-home cooking class. You can also manage meal prep with one-touch control over cooking modes, temperatures, and time settings, and monitor the entire process at a single glance.

SmartThings Cooking is powered by Whisk, a smart food platform acquired by Samsung NEXT. Whisk’s Food AI brings together user preferences, intent, and environmental factors to deliver personalized cooking experiences. Simply save a few of your favorite recipes into the recipe box and, if you wish, share your personal food preferences and your location. You will then receive customized recommendations.

Although SmartThings Cooking is a standalone service accessible via the SmartThings app²,  Family Hub owners can also enjoy meal planning conveniently their fridge³.  The smart fridge offers a full-screen dedicated board optimized for SmartThings Cooking, which works with Family Hub to understand what’s inside the fridge and add missing ingredients directly to your online grocery cart for at-home delivery.

Samsung’s Family Hub for 2021 also brings powerful new capabilities that make it the center of the smart home. Widgets for the most frequently used functions have become easier to use, with a larger music widget that includes personalized recommendations and an upgraded SmartThings widget that serves as a dashboard for all your smart home devices. Family members can upload photos, notes, and more to any screen, so that you can use all of the Family Hub screens like the Family Board feature, first introduced in 2019.

More information on SmartThings Cooking and Family Hub will be on display at Samsung’s virtual CES exhibit from January 11 to 14. For more information about Samsung’s latest products, please visit www.samsung.com/us/explore/experiences/ces2021.

¹ Available on Wi-Fi ranges registered with SmartThings.

² Available on Android and iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection and a Samsung account are required.

³ Available on versions after Family Hub 2.0.

“In the five years since we launched Family Hub, we have introduced innovations that reflect the new ways that busy, modern families are managing their daily lives,” said John Herrington, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Home Appliances, Samsung Electronics America. “The latest Family Hub is the most innovative yet, with more personalized, intelligent features that enable busy families to stay better connected to one another.”

The latest version of Family Hub is simple, sophisticated, and modern, making it the perfect addition to today’s connected kitchen. In response to years of consumer insights with Family Hub, the next generation delivers innovative features that people want the most: AI-enhanced cameras inside the refrigerator and improved, thoughtful meal planning and recipe suggestions tailored to personal preferences. The new Family Hub also enables families to share more types of media and entertainment together, and brings a new level of control to the connected home.

Intelligent Meal Planning

Family Hub is more streamlined and more personalized than ever, meaning you’ll spend less time preparing your meals and more time enjoying them. It customizes the entire food experience for you—recommending Smart Recipes based on the dietary preferences you set, helping you come up with a weeklong Meal Plan based on your refrigerator inventory, and preparing your Shopping List with all the right ingredients.

Family Hub’s ViewInside cameras have been upgraded with brand-new AI image recognition technology, which automatically scans the products inside your fridge, identifies them, and sends you updates on items your family has added or depleted. Family Hub’s Meal Planner is also smarter, with the Quick Plan feature now offering a week’s worth of recommended recipes with just one click.

Another new feature for meal planning is brought to Family Hub through innovative technology from Whisk, a food AI startup recently acquired by Samsung NEXT. Whisk can help you plan an entire meal—or even a week’s worth of meals—by adjusting recipes based on the number of guests you expect and building a smart shopping list that consolidates ingredients from several recipes.

Bring Your Family Closer

Since the launch of the Family Board last year, families have been using this virtual bulletin board to enhance life’s special moments, sharing favorite songs and images for the whole family to interact with. Now, for the first time, the Family Board supports video clips, so you can transfer videos from your smartphone to the refrigerator and relive important memories together.

To make sharing easier, Family Hub has also updated the SmartView feature, which mirrors content from connected Samsung TVs and Samsung mobile devices. With portrait mode, you can enjoy vertical smartphone videos, as well as your favorite social media content on the full screen of Family Hub. With almost half a dozen options available, your family members can continue to enjoy music from their favorite music streaming apps.

Connect and Control Your Smart Home

The new Family Hub takes managing your smart home to the next level. You can monitor and control over 1,000 SmartThings-compatible products throughout your home: turn your lights on or off, see who’s at the front door, set the temperature, and lock the front door. And with the addition of the new SmartThings Video widget, you can now view multiple security cameras at-a-glance, to keep an eye on your entire home from the kitchen.

The new Family Hub software enhancements will be available this spring. For more information about the product or Samsung Home Appliances, please visit http://www.samsung.com.

“We see software and services becoming a core part of Samsung Electronics’ DNA, and startups are key to achieving this vision,” said David Eun, President and Founder of Samsung NEXT. “Samsung continues to embrace entrepreneurship at all levels and this Fund shows our unwavering commitment to support great startups worldwide.”

The Fund targets pre-Seed to Series B investments with a focus on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, IoT and other new frontier technologies. Companies that have received capital from the Fund so far include: Converge Industries, Dashbot, Entry Point VR, Filament, Intezer, LiquidSky, Otto Radio, 2Sens, SafeDK and Virtru.

“Our investments bring the power of the Samsung platform to startups to accelerate their growth and ultimately their success,” said Brendon Kim, VP and Managing Director of Samsung NEXT Ventures. “The Samsung NEXT Fund expands our global reach and capabilities, while increasing Samsung’s access to more great ideas, products and talent.”

In September, Samsung NEXT launched its newest office in Tel Aviv (Samsung NEXT Tel Aviv). The new location is the fifth for the organization, which currently has teams in Mountain View, New York, San Francisco and Korea. Samsung NEXT will open additional locations in 2017.

“We’re very passionate about partnering with startups and developing meaningful relationships in startup ecosystems around the world,” said Emily Becher, Managing Director of Samsung NEXT Start and head of Samsung NEXT’s international expansion. “We leverage local experts to fuel traction and drive scale for startups right where they are.”

To coincide with Samsung NEXT’s international expansion and launch of the Fund, the company has initiated its first major rebrand effort which includes the renaming of its organization to “Samsung NEXT” and the release of a new logo and website. With the rebrand, the company’s goal is to simplify its identity and clarify its message and mission.

For the first time, at CES 2017 Eureka Park, Samsung NEXT will be showcasing startups from its investment portfolio that are pushing boundaries with new frontier technologies and innovative solutions.

• Baobab Studios – VR animation. baobabstudios.com
• BioBeats – AI and digital health. biobeats.com
• Branch – Mobile data linking. branch.io
• Filament – IOT. filament.com
• LiquidSky – Ultra low-latency cloud computing and gaming. liquidsky.tv
• Lotik – Wireless water intelligence. lotik.io
• Mapzen – Open source mapping services. mapzen.com
• Otto Radio – Curates news and podcasts with the push of a button. ottoradio.com
• UniKey – Alternative access control. unikey.com

For more information, visit: http://samsungnext.com/ and connect on social media: @SamsungNEXT.