Samsung announces an expanded Google partnership to let Galaxy phone and tablet users onboard Matter-compatible devices to SmartThings and Google Home systems
Ahead of its annual developer conference, Samsung has revealed details about how Matter smart home devices will work on its Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets.
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung and Google had already opened SmartThings to Nest devices through earlier SmartThings support for Google Nest, while Matter had drawn backing from Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, and other vendors at CES. The new Galaxy-based setup path turns that interoperability agenda into a phone and tablet workflow.
The partnership matters because it connects Samsung's device ecosystem to both SmartThings and Google Home at the point a new Matter device is added, rather than making platform compatibility an after-the-fact choice.
First-order effects
- Galaxy phone and tablet users gain a single onboarding route for Matter-compatible devices across SmartThings and Google Home.
- Samsung and Google make Galaxy hardware a shared entry point for adding devices to their respective smart-home systems.
Second-order effects
- Manufacturers of Matter-compatible devices gain access to SmartThings and Google Home users through the same Galaxy setup flow, reducing the importance of separate platform-specific onboarding.
- The move adds practical weight to Matter's multi-platform promise as Google later completed Matter support across Android and Nest.
Third-order effects
- If major platforms continue to share setup and certification paths, smart-home platforms will compete more on software experience and services than on exclusive device compatibility; the later shared Matter certification acceptance points in that direction.
The trend: Matter is shifting smart-home competition from closed ecosystem access toward interoperable setup, with mobile devices becoming the control point for cross-platform onboarding.