Samsung Electronics has announced an update to its global smart home platform, SmartThings, aimed at improving user experiences to help them better care for their families and themselves in daily life. This latest update enhances the Family Care service, allowing users to better support parents living apart. It also integrates key SmartThings features into Now Brief, a personalized briefing service available on Galaxy mobile devices, to improve convenience and comfort in users’ daily routines. Samsung plans to gradually introduce these new Now Brief features to TVs and Family Hub refrigerators.
Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of the SmartThings Team at Samsung Electronics, stated, “Samsung’s AI technology goes beyond everyday convenience to help users care for themselves and their families with greater peace of mind.” Jung emphasized that SmartThings will continue to connect customers’ daily lives with AI and expand its services.
The enhanced Family Care service links SmartThings with home appliances and mobile devices to provide notifications about activities of users’ aging parents, medication reminders, and location-based alerts. The update also introduces the Care on Call feature, which allows caregivers to check on care recipients through a simple phone call. A pop-up displays key information like the first and most recent activity times and local weather, helping caregivers ask meaningful questions.
SmartThings continuously monitors devices such as air conditioners and purifiers for indoor conditions like temperature and air quality. Any unusual usage patterns trigger immediate notifications to caregivers, enabling remote control of the devices if necessary. The Safety Patrol feature has also been improved, using a Bespoke AI Jet Bot Steam Ultra to monitor the home. If no activity is detected for a set time, caregivers receive alerts and can remotely activate the feature, using the robot vacuum’s camera and two-way communication to address issues.
The Care Insight feature has been enhanced to provide actionable, long-term data, analyzing factors like temperature and humidity and tracking changes in activity levels compared to the previous week.
Now Brief provides a rich AI experience by integrating SmartThings services to keep users informed about their daily lives, family, and home conditions. With the Galaxy S26 series launch, Now Brief will support Home Security, Family Care, and Pet Care, along with existing features like Home Insight and Energy reports. It will be rolled out to TVs from 2024 and Family Hub refrigerators from 2021.
Now Brief will automatically activate when users approach the TV, touch the Family Hub refrigerator screen, or open and close the refrigerator door, providing updates on home device status, energy usage, and family activity.
