Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S21 phones last week, but that was not all the company talked about. It was also announced that Samsung’s SmartThings device controls would soon be accessible through Android Auto, and now the functionality is already going live.
Integration with Android Auto seems to require SmartThings v1.7.59.23, which is still being released on the Play Store. If you don’t have it yet (as I didn’t), you can get it from APKMirror. Once you have the latest version, an Android Auto section will appear in the application’s settings.
From there, you can choose which smart home gadgets appear in the Automatic control panel, up to a maximum of six devices. You can also choose to receive automatic notifications to run a scene when you approach your home, so you can turn on all the lights before you get out of the car.
The interface in Auto is extremely simple: you get a switch for each device, plus a settings button at the top to change notifications. I don’t have any devices connected to SmartThings with variable controls (for example, lights with dimmers), so I couldn’t test whether more advanced controls are supported.
SmartThings already worked on Android Auto by connecting your SmartThings account to Google Assistant, but it is good that touch controls and scene notifications are now also available.
