What you need to know
- Samsung announced that it’s bringing its Now Brief feature to SmartThings, integrating it with your smart locks, appliances, Family Care, and more.
- Soon, users with Samsung TVs from 2024 or later will get Now Briefs on their displays along with the nightly recap.
- Samsung is also making small improvements to Family Care, which originally debuted in 2025, giving family members smart notifications about their parents’ “activities” at home.
Samsung is rolling out its latest SmartThings update, and the company is highlighting a feature that’s found a new home: Now Brief.
Android Central’s Tech
Looking at the Now Brief in this mock-up image, it looks like it belongs. I’m a huge sci-fi fan (fantasy too), and this is giving off those vibes. A little cyberpunk too. Anyway, I can see this as a quick way for people who are enjoying their morning coffee or glancing at the TV to see what’s going on overnight. To me, this makes perfect sense.
Its support also includes existing features, such as Home Insight, Energy and Sleep Environments. Plus, since Now Brief is present on Galaxy phones, Samsung says its usefulness is there when you’re not home. Through this, Now Brief will give you information about your home’s energy usage, device status and information about your door locks, sensors, security modes and much more.
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You may have to wait a bit before it arrives, as Samsung says the SmartThings Now brief will start coming to TVs in a “phased rollout” in 2024 or later. Family Hub refrigerators are also joining in; However, this applies to models launched in 2021 or later. Once you have it, and if Now Brief is already set up on your device, Samsung says you just have to approach your TV, and it “will automatically activate.”
take care of home and family
Samsung’s Family Care is also getting a boost for how it can keep families together across different distances. With a focus on helping users care for their parents, Samsung has highlighted its Family Care integration in SmartThings, which “connects with a range of home appliances and mobile devices to provide notifications about users’ aging parents’ activities and reminders for medication and hospital visits.”
Android Central’s Tech
This family care update was quite interesting. It’s important to take care of someone you love, whether they’ve been in an accident or it’s just age. We want to keep an eye on them and make sure everything is OK. Samsung’s Family Care helps in this to some extent. It’s not a complete blanket for everything that can happen, but it gives you a deep look into the sky, allowing you to keep track all day long.
Specifically, it says Care Insights provides more actionable and long-term data in the family care environment. Data about home temperature and humidity are called to action, as well as “significant changes in activity levels and usage of connected devices.”
