Samsung on October 6 announced an update to SmartThings, its smart home platform, that redesigns the app’s Home tab around a new feature called SmartThings Now, adds support for version 1.6 of the Matter connectivity standard and expands local control, which the company says cuts response times by about 30% compared with routing commands through the cloud.

Samsung said SmartThings now serves 470 million registered users and supports more than 430 brands certified under its Works with SmartThings (WWST) program. The announcement did not give a rollout date or say which countries will receive the update first.

A Home tab that suggests actions

SmartThings Now places cards at the top of the Home tab that pair information with an action the user can take straight away. In one example from the announcement, if a member of a Family Care group, such as an older parent, shows no device activity for an extended period, a card appears for the caregiver with options to check in or call.

Other cards suggest turning on lights or air purifiers as the user approaches a registered home, or prompt the user to create a routine. The feature also reviews the previous week of use to suggest changes to the Favorites shown on the Home tab, and a Routine Insight card lets people review and delete routines they no longer need.

The rest of the Home tab has been reorganized, with more compact service cards, a Live Wallpaper that changes through the day and a Floating Bar that keeps frequently used controls near the bottom of the screen for one-handed use. Samsung said the redesigned tab is available on SmartThings-supported devices including phones, Samsung Smart TVs, Family Hub refrigerators, Samsung appliances with 7-inch or 9-inch screens, and Windows devices.

Local control and Matter 1.6

With the expanded local control, a phone and a SmartThings hub on the same Wi-Fi network talk to each other directly instead of sending commands through Samsung’s cloud servers. The app switches between local and cloud control depending on whether the phone is at home. The company said this helps keep devices controllable during brief network fluctuations, and an updated Offline Device Diagnostics page can push new network details to all registered devices at once.

Local control works with the SmartThings app on Android and iOS together with a SmartThings Station, SmartThings V2, V3 or V4 hubs, or hub-enabled Samsung Smart TVs and Family Hub refrigerators, according to the announcement.

Samsung said its support for Matter 1.6 improves stability and the performance of group control. The update also adds four device categories to SmartThings: energy meters for real-time power monitoring, closures for specialized door and gate types, irrigation devices such as sprinkler systems, and soil sensors.

Matter is the cross-brand smart home standard maintained by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which published version 1.6 on June 17, 2026. The alliance described it as a focused feature release that offers new tools rather than expanding into new device categories. Its headline additions are setup over near-field communication (NFC), which can commission a device such as a bulb or an in-wall switch before it is fully powered on; a new multi-admin arrangement called Joint Fabric, in which several controllers share one Matter network through a central datastore; and Thermostat Suggestions, which let services send time-limited suggestions that a thermostat weighs against the user’s own preferences before acting.

Samsung’s announcement does not say whether SmartThings will use NFC setup, Joint Fabric or Thermostat Suggestions.

Why it matters

In Samsung’s description, commands that would otherwise be routed through the cloud are handled directly between the phone and the hub when both are on the home network. The company says that speeds up responses and keeps devices controllable during brief network fluctuations. The benefit applies only to homes with one of the listed hubs or a hub-enabled TV or refrigerator.

For makers of Matter devices, the update brings the newest version of the standard to a platform that Samsung says has 470 million registered users. The CSA has said device makers and ecosystems “will implement features according to their own timelines,” so a feature appearing in the specification does not mean it is available in any given app or product.

What to watch

The key open questions are when the update reaches users in each market and which Matter 1.6 features SmartThings exposes beyond the stability and group-control improvements Samsung described. The CSA advises consumers to check with their device brands and ecosystems for availability.

The caveats

The 30% figure comes from Samsung’s own tests under controlled conditions, and the company notes that actual performance may vary with the user’s environment. The user total refers to registered accounts, as stated by Samsung, and is not an independent count of active users.

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