Samsung SmartThings in 2023: The Comeback No One Expected

If you told me two years ago that I'd be recommending SmartThings to people again, I would've laughed. Samsung's smart home platform spent years in a strange limbo — the hardware was fine, but the software was buggy, the app was slow, and the forced migration away from the beloved Groovy IDE left a lot of power users feeling abandoned.

But here we are in late 2023, and SmartThings has quietly put together one of the most impressive comebacks in the smart home space. Let me break down what actually changed.

The SmartThings Station: A $35 Surprise

Samsung released the SmartThings Station early in 2023 for just $35, and it might be the best value proposition in the smart home hub market right now. It's a wireless Qi charger for your phone that doubles as a SmartThings hub with Zigbee and Thread radios built in. No separate hub taking up space on your shelf — just a wireless charger on your nightstand that happens to control your entire smart home.

There's also a dedicated button on top that you can program to trigger any SmartThings routine. One press to trigger a "good morning" scene, double press for "leaving home," long press for "goodnight." It's a clever piece of industrial design that solves the "I don't want another box" objection perfectly.

The SmartThings Hub v3 is still available and still solid if you need a dedicated hub with Ethernet, but for most people starting fresh, the Station is the move.

The App Finally Got Good

This is the big one. The SmartThings app was genuinely terrible for years — slow to load, confusing navigation, and routines that felt limited compared to what the old Groovy IDE could do. Samsung basically rewrote major portions of the app throughout 2023, and the difference is night and day.

The home screen now loads in under two seconds on my Galaxy S23. Device tiles are customizable and responsive. The Favorites tab actually makes sense now. But the real improvement is in Routines.

Routines Are Genuinely Powerful Now

SmartThings Routines in 2023 support conditions, variables, and if/then logic that gets surprisingly close to Home Assistant automations. You can set a routine to run only during certain times, only when specific people are home, and chain multiple conditions together with AND/OR logic. You can even use device states as conditions — "if the door sensor has been open for more than 5 minutes AND it's after 10 PM, send a notification."

Is it as powerful as Home Assistant's YAML automations or Node-RED? No. But it's about 80% of what most people need, and it works through a visual interface that doesn't require writing a single line of code.

Matter and Thread Support

SmartThings added Matter support across the board in 2023. The Station and Hub v3 both serve as Matter controllers and Thread border routers. This means any Matter-certified device works with SmartThings right out of the box, and Thread devices get a solid mesh network to connect to.

Samsung was actually one of the first major platforms to ship real Matter support, and it's been stable in my testing. I've paired Eve Motion sensors, Nanoleaf bulbs, and an Aqara door sensor over Matter/Thread with zero issues. The pairing process uses the standard Matter QR code scan and takes about 30 seconds.

The Samsung Ecosystem Advantage

Here's where SmartThings has an edge that no competitor can match: Samsung makes everything. TVs, refrigerators, washers, dryers, air conditioners, robot vacuums, phones, tablets, watches. If you own Samsung appliances, SmartThings integration is built in and genuinely useful.

My Samsung washer sends a notification when a cycle finishes. The TV turns on and sets the input when I say "hey Bixby, movie time." The fridge has a SmartThings dashboard on its screen (yes, the memes are real, but it's actually useful for controlling lights while cooking). The Galaxy SmartTag trackers show up in SmartThings Find, which works way better than people give it credit for — especially with Samsung's massive phone network helping with Bluetooth tracking.

Galaxy phone presence detection is also rock solid. SmartThings uses a combination of WiFi, Bluetooth, and phone GPS to determine who's home, and it triggers automations within seconds of arriving or leaving. It's more reliable than what I've experienced with Alexa or Google Home for presence-based routines.

The Edge Driver Migration: Messy But Done

The transition from the Groovy SmartThings IDE to Edge drivers was, frankly, a mess. Samsung shut down the Groovy cloud in late 2022 and early 2023, forcing everyone to migrate to locally-running Edge drivers. Many community-developed device handlers didn't have Edge equivalents ready, leaving some users with devices that suddenly stopped working or lost advanced features.

By late 2023, most of the pain is over. The Edge driver ecosystem has matured, Samsung has published drivers for hundreds of devices, and the community has filled most of the remaining gaps. Local processing means automations run faster and work even if your internet goes down — a genuine improvement over the cloud-dependent Groovy era.

But the community definitely lost something in the transition. The old SmartThings forums and IDE had a vibrant developer community that made SmartThings feel like a hacker-friendly platform. That energy has largely moved to Home Assistant, and Samsung hasn't done much to win it back.

What's Still Lacking

SmartThings isn't perfect, and I want to be honest about the gaps:

• Samsung account requirement. You need a Samsung account for everything. There's no local-only option, and if Samsung's cloud goes down, your automations stop. This happened briefly in October 2023 and it's a legitimate concern.
• No local dashboard. There's no web interface or local dashboard like Home Assistant offers. You're stuck with the phone app or Samsung displays.
• Edge driver gaps. Some niche devices still don't have proper Edge drivers. If you have older Z-Wave devices with custom Groovy handlers, check compatibility before migrating.
• Limited advanced scripting. Power users who want to write complex automations with variables, loops, or API calls will hit the ceiling quickly. This is firmly a "visual automation" platform.
• Inconsistent third-party support. Some device makers have been slow to update their SmartThings integrations. Check specific device compatibility before committing.

The Verdict

If you own multiple Samsung devices — especially a Galaxy phone and Samsung appliances — SmartThings in 2023 is genuinely good. The Station at $35 is a no-brainer entry point, the app is finally fast and capable, and Matter/Thread support future-proofs the platform nicely.

For everyone else? It's harder to recommend. Home Assistant is more powerful and more private. Apple HomeKit is more polished if you're in the Apple ecosystem. Hubitat offers local processing without cloud dependency. SmartThings sits in a solid middle ground — easier than Home Assistant, more flexible than HomeKit — but that middle ground only really shines when Samsung hardware is part of the equation.

The comeback is real, though. Samsung earned this one by doing the unglamorous work of fixing the app, finishing the Edge migration, and shipping Matter support on time. Whether they can sustain the momentum into 2024 depends on whether they keep investing in the platform or let it coast. Given Samsung's track record, cautious optimism is the right call.