Samsung SmartThings is now Matter certified. At the end of the month, the update will arrive that will add support for the Matter standard to the hubs of the Samsung SmartThings platform for the smart home: the second version of these hubs will then control the Matter devices via Wi-Fi or via Ethernet, while the hub more recent and the SmartThings dongle will also act as a router.
Samsung is the first company to publicly announce Matter certification: Jaeyeon Jung, vice president of Samsung Electronics and head of mobile business at SmartThings, said the company received Matter certification on Wednesday, October 12, which is a week after Matter’s launch. A news confirmed by Michelle Mindala-Freeman of the Connectivity Standards Alliance who oversees Matter, that certifications began to arrive this week and Samsung was among the first to obtain one.
We partnered with Silicon Labs to build software that runs Zigbee and Thread simultaneously using the same processor.
Matter support will therefore be implemented on the Samsung platform this month – explains Mark Benson, head of SmartThings – through an update via OTA for all existing SmartThings v2 and v3 hubs, as well as for the SmartThings dongle and the SmartThings app for Android. . At a later stage, the SmartThings hubs based on the software integrated in the new smart TVs, monitors and refrigerators of the Samsung Family Hub will be updated.
While the updated hubs will continue to support Zigbee and Z-Wave, at least for the time being, they won’t act as a bridge for Matter. Jung explains:
We don’t have a plan yet to support this feature. SmartThings users will be able to continue to use those devices connected to a SmartThings hub, but existing Zigbee and Z-Wave devices will not work through Matter.
Perhaps the most interesting news is the addition of the Matter standard to the dongle: this in fact means that, for example, those who own a compatible Samsung smart TV or a smart refrigerator and buy the SmartThings Dongle VG-STDB10A (costs 39 euros), will have a A Matter-certified SmartThings controller with router Thread will be ready for use by the end of this month. Of course, there are no Matter devices to check yet, but with the launch just happening, we can expect similar product launches in the near future.
