Samsung Galaxy Watch can now control more smart home gear and stream Nest cameras

Ben Schoon | Jan 19 2023 - 6:05 am PT

Samsung is rolling out an update to SmartThings on Galaxy Watch, opening up more smart home controls and the ability to view live feeds from Google’s Nest cameras.

Rolling out soon, the SmartThings app on Samsung Galaxy Watch is getting support for new smart home devices. Samsung says that connected “air purifiers, thermostats, and blinds” will be able to be controlled through the SmartThings app on Galaxy Watch. This expands on the app’s existing support for controlling TVs, lights, speakers, and other devices.

Today, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced an update coming to the SmartThings ecosystem that will allow Galaxy Watch users to monitor and control more of their smart home right from their wrist. The update will expand the list of devices that can be controlled using SmartThings on Galaxy Watch including air purifiers, thermostats, and blinds. Users can also continue to enjoy the ease and convenience of controlling home devices like TV, A/C, lights, speakers, and more straight from their Galaxy Watch anywhere and anytime they want.

Perhaps more interesting is the arrival of support for streaming live camera feeds from security cameras sold by Amazon’s Ring brand and Google Nest. SmartThings added support for Nest cameras in early 2021.

This integration will allow Galaxy Watch users to view feeds from a Nest or Ring camera or video doorbell directly from their wrist in real time. The integration is even deeper with Ring cameras, with two-way talk support directly from the watch.

It’s also noted that these features work with a “swipe right from the Watch face to easily reach SmartThings.” This seems to imply support for Tiles in Wear OS 3. As such, Samsung’s phrasing hints that this experience will only be available to Wear OS-based Galaxy Watch models, including Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5. We’ve reached out to Samsung to see if any Tizen wearables are also included. Wear OS also notably has an official Google Home app at this point, but with support for a tile and cameras, SmartThings certainly has a bit of an edge.

Samsung didn’t provide any images of this experience, but we’ll add them as soon as we can. There’s also no word on exactly when this updated experience will be available to customers.