Samsung's SmartThings will support Google Nest devices starting in January 2021
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung spent the mid-2010s building SmartThings into a self-contained hub business — updating the SmartThings Hub alongside a subscription monitoring service in 2015, then extending control to its own TVs with hubs embedded in 2016 HD TVs. Supporting Google Nest devices from January 2021 marks the turn from closed ecosystem to open platform.
The move also set up what followed: an [[a:983782|expanded Google partnership letting Galaxy users onboard Matter-compatible devices across SmartThings and Google Home]], and Samsung extending the same openness to a direct rival by agreeing that LG and Samsung smart home apps will control each other's appliances and TVs.
First-order effects
- Households running both ecosystems can manage Google Nest devices inside SmartThings from January 2021, making Samsung's app the single control point for mixed Google-Samsung homes instead of forcing a choice between apps.
Second-order effects
- Rivals face pressure to match the openness: Samsung itself extended cross-brand control to LG under the Home Connectivity Alliance, and the Google tie deepened into Matter-based onboarding shared between SmartThings and Google Home.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, smart home competition shifts from locking users into one vendor's hub to competing on which platform orchestrates everyone else's devices — with standards like Matter lowering the cost of switching and rewarding whoever controls the software layer.
The trend: Smart home platforms are trading walled-garden exclusivity for cross-ecosystem interoperability, with Samsung positioning SmartThings as the neutral orchestration layer as Matter-era standards take hold.