Samsung’s SmartThings connects 15 mn home appliances for remote control

Samsung Electronics’ model is introducing SmartThings energy service at Samsung Digital City in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. [Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

Samsung Electronics Co.’ SmartThings, a platform for remote controlling household appliances such as air conditioners and air purifiers, has surpassed 15 million connected units.

According to the Korean home appliance giant on Thursday, the global household devices connected to Samsung SmartThings exceeded 15 million units as of the end of July. With the advantage of being able to connect not only products from Samsung but also lights, curtains, and more from other companies, along with the added feature of AI-based energy-saving functions, the number of SmartThings users is rapidly increasing in Korea and worldwide.

Since its acquisition of SmartThings in 2014, Samsung Electronics has evolved it into an open platform that can connect various appliances.

Currently, there are about 280 million global users, and the number of interconnected devices has reached 127 million units. Among these, the number of household appliances such as air conditioners and air purifiers connected to SmartThings has surpassed 15 million.

“In Korea, the percentage of Samsung appliances connected to SmartThings has exceeded 76 percent of WiFi-enabled appliances released after 2017,” said a company official.

Recently, the platform’s automation feature, where consumers do not need to manually operate appliance functions, has gained attention, resulting in a noticeable increase in users.

The most frequently used automation routine by Samsung appliance users on SmartThings was the control of air conditioner power. As interest in reducing electricity bills has grown, many users have set up automatic control of air conditioner power to save money.

Following air conditioners, routines such as the ‘Welcome Care’ function and power control for air purifiers were also used frequently. The Welcome Care function utilizes location-based technology to automatically activate when the user approaches home, ensuring that the indoor air quality is pleasant when entering.