HOW SAMSUNG’S SMARTTHINGS IS THINKING ABOUT MATTER AND THE FUTURE OF THE SMART HOME

Interviewed for a piece by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy in The Verge about the important role of Matter in shaping the future of the smart home industry. The article discusses the upcoming changes in the smart home landscape with the introduction of the Matter standard, which promises to make smart devices compatible across different platforms. The article also shares SmartThings' plan to adopt Matter, focusing on improving user experience as the key differentiator. SmartThings hubs, including those built into Samsung devices like TVs and refrigerators, will support Matter, enabling broader device compatibility.

A lot has changed in the industry since SmartThings launched. Architecturally, the platform has had to also evolve. We’ve been working on setting the platform up for scale and flexibility in the future.

There’s a lot of exciting things going on in the smart home space. Consumers have never been more willing to add smart devices to their homes. With the pandemic, people are rediscovering and reimagining what their home could be like and how they can make it better, which is translating to an excitement about smart home stuff.

SmartThings is really in the center of that movement where we’ve been since 2012. And I think we have a unique opportunity to bring our partners together to commit to the new industry standard, Matter. Finally, the industry has recognized [that connectivity] has been a barrier to adoption.

I do think that, in 10 years, we’re going to look back at this year as an industry inflection point — a fundamental change in the way companies work together to deliver things that actually work together, and not just in separate siloed ecosystems.