The Samsung SmartThings platform has typically been a secondary consideration for most smart home users, especially in the face of more advanced options like Amazon Alexa or Google Home. SmartThings has always had a few hidden features that most users overlook, but over the past few months, Samsung has made significant upgrades to the platform that make it worth consideration.
Many of those features unsurprisingly revolve around Galaxy AI. At the summer 2025 Galaxy Unpacked event earlier this month, the company announced a slew of new features that have quietly elevated SmartThings from “that other smart home platform I’ve heard about” to something you should pay serious attention to.
Not current with all the news? Here’s a high-level overview of what’s new.
Smart home tech can be incredibly convenient, but learning exactly how to set up complicated routines and triggers is sometimes outside the scope of a casual user. SmartThings’ Routine Creation Assistant helps you set up powerful, intelligent systems without the need to navigate obtuse menus. All you have to do is ask SmartThings to carry out the action in the app, and it will configure all of the needed actions.
For example, let’s say you want to create a routine that gently wakes you up and has your coffee waiting for you. You can say, “Create a wakeup routine that slow brightens my bedroom lights starting at 6:45 AM and starts brewing coffee at 6:55 AM. At 7 AM, start my morning playlist.” While you could do all of those things before, now you can circumvent the different menus.
This feature also implements SmartThings’ Delay Actions feature, which makes creating staggered commands like the ones above as simple as telling the platform what to do.
It sometimes feels like the convenience of the smart home is largely catered toward single-user households. Setting up routines is simple enough, but setting up a routine with conditional settings (like making sure your spouse is out of the house before the robot vacuum triggers) is a different story.
One of the new features for SmartThings is called Confirm to Run Actions. It essentially adds an additional verification layer by notifying users and confirming actions before starting them, such as ensuring no one is home before arming the security system.
Of all of SmartThings’ latest features, Virtual Home is the one that feels most futuristic. This feature has been around in beta for some time, but it’s not officially live for all users. The Virtual Home feature lets you toy around with different smart home gadgets in a virtual setting so that you can better imagine how they might work and interact with your existing setup.
Virtual Home is accessible through the SmartThings app. You can also access it by going to https://virtual.smartthings.com/, but fair warning: the example page is pretty demanding and might be slow on lower-end machines.
Outside of these three major updates, SmartThings has also received an overhaul to its Apple Watch app that makes it faster to swap between different devices straight from your wrist. It’s a relatively minor upgrade, but the impact is easy to see. You can control things without reaching for your phone.
In addition, the SmartThings Find service is also getting a bit of a makeover with a new feature that makes it easier to have friends and family help you look for lost items. Now all you have to do is send a link, and it can be viewed from any device — including other mobile operating systems like iPhone.
Finally, Samsung is expanding the availability of its Calm Onboarding feature. This makes it easier for users to set up and connect compatible products to the SmartThings app. Currently available in 14 countries, it will be available in 58 by the time the rollout finishes.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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With AI progressing so fast, it's only a matter of time before we start getting AI companions like the ones we used to see in movies like R2-D2, Wall-E, or Baymax. Now, Singapore-based OKA Technology has unveiled Mori, a cute little AI companion that looks less like a conventional home robot and more like someone turned the Pokémon Foongus into a table lamp.
Mori isn't meant to clean your house or control your smart home, but to serve as what OKA calls a "Nature Companion." It uses subtle movements, warm lighting, nature-inspired sounds, and small reactions to make its presence around the house feel calming rather than distracting. Mori can sit quietly while you read, sway along to music, welcome you when you enter a room, or encourage you to slow down for a moment without requiring a screen or a conversation.