Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S21 phones last week, but that was not all the company was talking about. It has also been announced that Samsung’s SmartThings device control will soon be accessible via Android Auto, and now the functionality is already available.
Android Auto integration apparently requires SmartThings v1.7.59.23, which is still launching in the Play Store. If you do not have it yet (like me), you can grab it from APKMirror. Once you have the latest version, an Android Auto section will appear in the app’s settings.
From there, you can choose which smart home devices appear in the automatic control panel, up to a maximum of six devices. You can also choose to receive automatic alerts for driving a scene when you approach your home, so you can turn on all your home lights before leaving your car.
The interface on Auto is very simple: you get a link for each device, plus a settings button at the top to change notifications. I did not connect any devices to SmartThings with variable controls (e.g. lights with dimmers), so I could not test whether more advanced controls were supported.
SmartThings was already functional on Android Auto by linking your SmartThings account to Google Assistant, but it’s nice that touch services and scene notifications are also available now.
