Huge SmartThings update drops with some Galaxy Note 20 Ultra extras

The latest update from SmartThings is here and wow, we have a lot to talk about. As of Monday morning CET, this new SmartThings version, build number 1.7.51.42, was only available to download from the Google Play Store. The Galaxy Store site is still on last month’s update, so make sure you try to upgrade from the right store if you’re having trouble getting the release to actually look at your end. But anyway: new automation tools, expanded QR card support, more accessibility enhancements, including a partial redesign of UI – these are just some of the new SmartThings ™ Samsung is now offering on most modern Galaxy devices.

But only one of these is now able to take advantage of several significant improvements in efficiency for SmartThings. Of course, that would be the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Samsung’s latest flagship full of a variety of cutting-edge tech – including support for sophisticated ultra wideband (UWB) radio broadcasts. It can now use those in combination with augmented reality (AR) to help you locate your IoT gadgets faster or interact with them more intuitively when you do. That said, although you will hopefully never lose your car, you may find that it now integrates with SmartThings in a much smoother way, in large part due to the raw gains in sharing speeds for encryption figures supported by the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

We could get used to these massive SmartThings updates

The new update from SmartThings also introduces many other innovations and improvements, all of which are much more accessible. One of these is a redesigned automation configuration menu that now offers more answers than-or triggers to speed up all (re) programming attempts on your end. Speaking of automation, it got two new terms in this latest SmartThings build. One of them is weather, so you can now turn on your household with internet that automatically plays Tears in Heaven when it rains, for example. The other is Linked Places which allows you to have Bixby messages at home that you will be late if you enter your psychiatrist’s office the day before to deal with the emotional impact of listening to Tears on Heaven.

SmartThings currently supports up to three linked locations, though oddly enough, the functionality is limited by the number of Galaxy devices you have. For the uninitiated, SmartThings also works on third-party devices, as it has been a while since Samsung gave up the ambition to sell its smartphones to entire families at all costs. In January of 2018, to be more specific. Therefore, it seems strange to limit Linked Places to just Galaxy smartphones, seeing as the third-party devices might otherwise benefit from almost every other feature of the app. In fact, it is possible that this is just a break that will be ironed out in the coming weeks.

Additionally, you can now get water updates on the Location Summary screen, although they are limited to automated refreshes at 20-minute intervals. Of course, this will require the geofencing setting to be enabled, although this should not be restricted in any significant way, as the feature does not use GPS, but instead relies solely on existing cellular data that your phone is constantly exchanging with nearby towers whatever you do – unless you enable Airplane Mode. Finally, this huge SmartThings update also expands the Android app’s QR code support. It does this by allowing you to scan multiple Zigbee 3.0 QR ciphers in a single setting, which ultimately makes it as useful as Google Lens for Goods as you quickly spot your new mesh network.