One of the coolest new features of Android 11 is the ability to use the power menu to offer a bunch of shortcuts to your smart devices. However, there was no sign that Samsung had adopted this feature in the update, but it seems that they did. Samsung has smart home control on Android 11; they just moved the place.
In Android 11 on Pixels and some other devices (OnePlus, Oppo, etc.), accessing the power menu has much more than just blocking and disabling buttons. There’s a brand new user interface that shows you active cards in Google Pay as well as smart home control. This is one of the best user-oriented features in this version, but unfortunately Google has made it optional for its partners. In the early compilation of Samsung’s use of Android 11, we were disappointed when we could see that the smart room controls were nowhere to be found.
Fortunately, Samsung has adopted smart home control on Android 11, the company just decided to swap the place. Instead of being in the power menu (which is harder to access on one UI anyway because Samsung still believes Bixby is a good thing), Samsung is placing the Android 11 buttons for smart homes under the ” devices “button that quickly appears in the notification screen settings.
When you tap the button, SmartThings is turned off by default, but with a menu you can switch it to Google Home. From there, you can manage programs with an overflow menu that can appear on this menu and customize the layout as you wish.
The other minor change that Samsung has made is that these buttons are no longer one-time actions to turn devices on and off. On the contrary, they pull up the “discs” where you have to tap again to turn on the power. A bit boring if you ask me, but still better than searching the app.
However, there is one very unfortunate thing about this. This change only applies to One UI 3.1 which is currently limited only to the Galaxy S21 series and the Galaxy Tab S7. Other Samsung devices on Android 11, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 2, have just been brought to One UI 3.0, which outperforms the smart home controls and the “devices” button is only limited to SmartThings as it has been for years. Sorry, but there is at least hope for future updates.
Thank you Max!
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