Samsung Electronics participates in the Home Connectivity Alliance with its SmartThings integrated appliance solution to improve connectivity in the home
Samsung is a leader in efficient appliances and smart services to maximize energy savings and offer sustainable solutions in the home with HCA
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. will participate as chairman of the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA) conference at IFA 2022, which will take place from September 2 to 6. Samsung will demonstrate its leadership in device interconnectivity through the company’s integrated home appliance solution, SmartThings. This will allow users to control home appliances from 13 leading brands from around the world.
The common goal of HCA — an organization founded by major manufacturers of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), home appliances and televisions including Arçelik A.Ş., The Electrolux Group, Haier, GE Appliances, Samsung Electronics, Trane Technologies and others—is to provide secure and interoperable products that use connected functions and services in innovative ways to ensure that users enjoy a holistic experience of their home appliance ecosystems.
As one of the founding members of the HCA and chairman of the alliance’s board of directors, Samsung takes its leadership position within the project very seriously. Yoon Ho Choi, Product Planning, IoT Biz Group, Samsung Electronics, is currently the chairman of the HCA and the Board of Directors. Proud of its status as a founding member of the HCA, Samsung has striven since the association’s inception to use SmartThings—the dynamic integration system for home appliances and devices—to help achieve the alliance’s ambitions for interconnectivity in the world. home.
“We are especially pleased to see the speed of progress within the HCA. In just nine months since its launch, the HCA has been able to offer a live demonstration of Cloud-to-Cloud interoperability of appliances, televisions and HVAC systems of all the brands that are part of it”, said Chanwoo Park, executive vice president and chief IoT officer of the Digital Home Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics. “This is a truly unique and momentous achievement that could only be achieved through dedication and close collaboration between manufacturers who know and understand the connected home ecosystem”.
SmartThings: A Core Component of HCA’s Mission for Samsung
SmartThings turns the home into an interconnected ecosystem. It’s a system that continues to help Samsung technologies, third-party apps, and devices from other HCA members work in harmony for a holistic home experience. During this year’s IFA, HCA will host a demonstration from September 2-5 attended by member companies, showing how home appliances from various brands can be controlled with one system. These devices include Samsung Electronics’ Bespoke Cube Air Purifier, Bespoke Jet Bot™ AI+, Bespoke Refrigerator and Neo QLED, all of which have been applied to SmartThings with the HCA Standard.
With the SmartThings app, users can control more than 40 features across 15 product categories from 13 brands, including Samsung Electronics. In turn, the smart home apps of those 13 brands can also control various Samsung products. For example, even if the oven, the induction hob and the kitchen hood are of different brands, it is possible to cook and control it with a single SmartThings app. The 15 product groups are made up of air conditioners, air purifiers, ecological heating systems, dishwashers, dryers, freezers, hoods, induction cookers, ovens, refrigerators, robot vacuum cleaners, televisions and washing machines, among others.
Considering the expandability of the existing SmartThings system, it is possible to build a smart and comfortable home environment by connecting another 300 brands of third-party devices, along with the products of the 13 HCA brands, to SmartThings.
Updates that keep legacy devices running
SmartThings and HCA plan to bring the new interoperable features to global markets within the first half of 2023. Additionally, Wi-Fi-equipped models of existing home appliances from HCA member companies can be controlled with a single app, regardless of brand, through an in-app software update. This is especially important considering the long life cycles of these large appliances that are part of the infrastructure of the home. SmartThings updates are simple, easily accessible and occur regularly to ensure that users around the world can access the latest security and feature updates.
An alliance for a better future
With more than 235 million registered users worldwide across more than 105 million connected devices, SmartThings continues to lead the smart home field. Samsung—along with its HCA partners—is helping to realize the vision of innovating and developing new consumer solutions in the IoT landscape by harnessing the power of the SmartThings platform. The company reaffirms its commitment to continue to refine its own technologies, while ensuring the interoperability of devices and devices from other HCA members.
