Samsung SmartThings has stopped trying to impress you with party tricks. It wants to run the boring parts of your life, and that is exactly why it is interesting.
South Africans do not buy tech for the novelty any more. After years of power anxiety and security concerns, we buy what lowers stress and saves money. SmartThings fits that brief. It automates pet check-ins, supports older family members with simple routines and alerts, trims usage on energy-hungry devices, and adds a few security layers that feel like common sense rather than sci-fi.
There is strategy here. Samsung is building a centre of gravity in your home. The app plays nicest with Samsung TVs, appliances and phones, and it is steadily becoming the default dashboard if you already live in that world. You can see the direction of travel in our recent article about Samsung’s 2025 Neo QLED TVs in South Africa, where SmartThings integration is part of the core pitch, not an afterthought.
The daily experience is where it earns trust. Pet owners get motion alerts and temperature tweaks that make leaving the house less stressful. Families with elderly relatives can set up no-movement notifications, a physical help button, and lighting routines that cut down on night-time stumbles. People chasing lower bills can push washing cycles to off-peak, nudge the air con to more efficient settings, and track which appliances are guzzling power. None of this is flashy. It is useful.
There is a cost, even if the app is free. The more you rely on SmartThings, the more you commit to Samsung’s ecosystem. Compatibility has improved, but it is still smoother with Samsung hardware than with a patchwork of third-party gadgets. If you like Apple Home or Google Home because they feel brand-agnostic, keep that in mind.
The Verge test is simple. Does the product change how we live, and does it do so without asking us to babysit it? SmartThings mostly passes. It is still a dashboard, but it is less of a chore and more of a quiet helper. It will not fix South Africa’s grid, and it will not replace proper security, yet it does reduce friction in a dozen small places every day. That is often where real utility lives.
If the smart home was once about turning lights blue, Samsung SmartThings is about making the lights behave so predictably that you forget there was ever a switch.