Samsung is expanding the controls in SmartThings, its app and platform for managing connected home devices, so you can keep using compatible devices when your home internet connection drops. The update announced globally, lets a phone communicate directly with a SmartThings Hub when both are on the same Wi-Fi network.
You’ll need a working home network and a supported hub. Installing SmartThings or registering a Wi-Fi appliance in the app does not guarantee offline control of that appliance.
We explained how SmartThings connects Samsung’s phones, TVs and appliances last month ahead of its Nairobi Connected Living roadshow. A command sent from inside your house can still depend on an internet service outside it. This update gives supported controls a route that stays within the home.
How control stays inside the home
With cloud-based control, a command goes through online services before it reaches the device. If the internet connection fails, that route breaks. Local control gives the phone a direct connection to the hub, the hardware that connects and controls compatible smart home devices.
Your Wi-Fi network and your internet connection are different parts of that route. The router can still connect devices inside the house even when it cannot reach the internet. With the phone and hub on that working network, supported controls can continue during an external internet interruption. The router and hub still need power, so this feature does not solve a power cut.
SmartThings automatically switches between local control at home and cloud-based remote control when you are away. Offline control works while your phone can reach the hub locally. When you control your home from somewhere else, SmartThings still uses the cloud.
Samsung claims local control can improve response times by approximately 30% compared with cloud control. That figure comes from its own tests under controlled conditions, and Samsung warns that results depend on the user’s environment. It has not supplied response times in milliseconds in the announcement.
This follows hub firmware 0.62.7, whose phased rollout was scheduled to start on 8th September 2026. Those release notes already described direct communication between the app and hub, even when the hub was offline, but marked it as dependent on an upcoming app version.
Automatic routines, such as switching a light on when a sensor is triggered, have their own requirements. SmartThings’ developer documentation says every device feature and service in a rule must support local execution for that rule to run on the hub. Rules involving unsupported features or services run in the cloud. So the new phone controls should not be read as a promise that every existing routine now works without internet.
Which devices get it, and what else changes
Samsung lists local control for Android and iOS devices with SmartThings installed. Supported hardware includes SmartThings Station, V2, V3 and V4 hubs, plus hub-enabled Samsung smart TVs and Family Hub refrigerators, its screen-equipped fridge range.
Samsung’s Africa support material explains that some Wi-Fi devices can join SmartThings without a hub. The new local-control feature specifically requires one. The October announcement gives no minimum app version, full list of supported TV and fridge models, or Kenya rollout date. It also does not list every connected device that can be controlled offline.
The app redesign introduces SmartThings Now, cards at the top of the Home tab with suggested actions. Samsung’s examples include a prompt to turn on lights as you approach a registered home location, followed by an option to make that action automatic. A Family Care card can suggest checking in or calling when an older parent’s connected devices show no activity for an extended period. We covered the earlier Family Care update in April.
A Routine Insight card lets you review the previous week’s routines and delete ones you no longer need. Frequently used controls move into a floating bar near the bottom of the screen. Offline Device Diagnostics also gains a way to update network information across registered devices at once.
Samsung is adding Matter 1.6 support too. Matter is a shared connectivity standard that lets compatible smart home products from different brands work together. SmartThings adds four device categories: energy meters, specialised door and gate closures, irrigation equipment and soil sensors. These are additions to SmartThings support; the standards body’s Matter 1.6 announcement says that version focuses on setup and control improvements rather than new device categories.
If you already use a supported hub, keeping manual controls available through an internet interruption is a useful improvement. Before relying on it, check your exact devices with the updated app on a functioning home network. Samsung has confirmed the phone-to-hub connection, but you still need the compatibility details to know which controls in your home will keep working.
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