What you need to know
A more connected smart home through Samsung’s ecosystem has arrived with its latest wearable update.
According to Samsung’s Newsroom post (opens in new tab), an update will soon roll out to owners of a Galaxy Watch for SmartThings to better control their smart homes. This update will soon roll out for the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Watch 5, Watch 4, and Watch 4 Classic. The Korean OEM explains that this update will bring more devices to control right from your Galaxy Watch, including air purifiers, thermostats, and blinds, alongside other existing smart home products like your lights and speakers.
This update also adds the ability to view a live feed of your connected cameras from your Galaxy Watch using the SmartThings app. Users will find both home and doorbell Ring and Nest camera feeds, which is a first for any of the Samsung wearables. Furthermore, those with Ring cameras can access two-way talk right from their wrist. Samsung also suggests these new features will be accessible from the SmartThings tile, which allows access to smart home controls with just a swipe from the home screen. That said, the added functionality may be limited to Galaxy Watches.
This new update also puts the SmartThings app on Wear OS further ahead of the Google Home app, which is still in preview and does not support live camera feeds on Wear OS just yet.
Back in October, Samsung launched support for the new Matter connectivity standard through its SmartThings phone app. This allowed users with smart home products to have all of their Matter-certified devices in one centralized app as the company supported the new software.
With this update coming to Galaxy Watches, users can take advantage of that stronger connectivity with their home with a little more ease. Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings, Device Platform Center at Samsung Electronics, stated, “We are thrilled to build this critical bridge that makes smart living more accessible and convenient by helping Galaxy Watch wearers protect and monitor their homes instantly from anywhere.”
Samsung has not yet stated when this update will be available, but we will keep you posted.