Tech giants, for years now, have forced consumers into frustrating compromises. Compromises where specific actions could only be taken by specific devices.
For example, if, over the years, you’ve been committed to and investing in Apple’s Siri and HomeKit, you’d be bummed to know that integrating products from other dominant players is either impossible or requires significant workarounds. Take Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem, for example. It has long been a hard-to-bridge smart home ecosystem for Apple users, though that is changing now.
Samsung’s new SmartThings update finally adds support for Siri Shortcuts. Not only will this allow users to control SmartThing-compatible devices from their iPhone, iPad, and even HomePod, it will also allow users to run routines with simple voice commands, as highlighted by the folks over at 9to5Mac.
According to the South Korean tech giant, the app update brings upgrades for Apple Watch users too. “The new release gives users the ability to access device groups created in the SmartThings app. When devices are grouped together, a user can now see and control those groups right from their wrist. Apple Watch owners with SmartThings can now view their full device list, send commands, and execute routines on the go.”
Unified routines
With lock screen controls
For example, you’d now be able to call on Siri to trigger your “Good morning” routine, and in addition to automatically turning on/adjusting your HomeKit-enbled smart home devices, the prompt will also simultaneously trigger your SmartThings-connected devices.
In addition, the update has also unlocked new iOS Live Activities functionality. For what it’s worth, the app already supported Live Activities, but with the new update, the app now allows users to view and control up to five of their most recently used SmartThings devices directly from the iPhone’s lock screen.
The new functionality seems to have gone live with version 1.7.39 of the app.
