Later this month, an over-the-air update will transform Samsung’s standalone SmartThings hubs into controllers for the new smart home standard Matter. The Matter devices will be controlled via Wi-Fi and Ethernet by the v2 hub, while the current hub and SmartThings dongle will also function as Thread border routers. Samsung is the first company to announce Matter certification publicly.
In an interview, Jaeyeon Jung, Samsung Electronics corporate vice president and head of SmartThings’ mobile experience business, confirmed that the company received Matter certification on Wednesday, October 12th, just a week after Matter launched. Michelle Mindala-Freeman of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which oversees Matter, confirmed that certifications began this week and stated that Samsung was among the first to receive one.
During this week’s Samsung Developer Conference Keynote, Mark Benson, head of SmartThings, announced that Matter support would be added to the platform this month. Following the keynote, Jung confirmed that Samsung intends to push over-the-air updates to all existing v2 and v3 SmartThings hubs, the SmartThings dongle, and the Android SmartThings app. According to Jung, the software-based SmartThings hubs built into newer Samsung smart TVs, monitors, and Family Hub refrigerators will be upgraded to support Matter at a later date.
While the upgraded hubs will continue to support Zigbee and Z-Wave, they will not be Matter bridges anytime soon. “We don’t yet have a plan to support that function,” Jung says. “SmartThings users can continue to use devices connected to a SmartThings hub, but existing Zigbee and Z-Wave devices will not be exposed to Matter.”
The good news is that SmartThings v3 hubs (now manufactured by Aeotec) and the $35 dongle for Samsung appliances equipped with SmartThings software hubs will be transformed into Thread border routers. “We collaborated with Silicon Labs to use software to run Zigbee and Thread on the same hardware chipset,” Jung says. “Once the software is released, SmartThings v3 hubs will support both Zigbee and Matter over Thread devices, as well as the dongle.”
This means that if you own a compatible Samsung smart TV or smart fridge and purchase the $35 dongle, you’ll have a SmartThings Matter controller with a Thread border router by the end of the month. Of course, there are no Matter devices to control just yet. However, with the standard’s release last week, we should see products begin to appear this year.
While v2 hubs cannot be upgraded to Thread and will only support Matter devices over Wi-Fi and ethernet, Jung claims that they will be able to control any Thread devices via a Thread border router built into another device. If you don’t use a dongle, the software-based hubs in Samsung smart TVs, monitors, and Family Hub fridges will work the same way.
Samsung’s smart appliance ecosystem, according to Jung, is one of the reasons the company believes consumers will choose SmartThings over another platform now that Matter is making device compatibility less of an issue in the smart home. (SmartThings’ brand was arguably built on being the most open platform among the major players.)
