Samsung discontinues SmartThings Link support for SHIELD

Last year, Samsung announced it would make changes to its legacy SmartThings platform, resulting in support for old hardware being dropped. Come to find out, that apparently includes the SmartThings Link, a dongle that allows users to access the NVIDIA Shield as a smart home hub.

Samsung sent out emails to SmartThings Link owners saying it plans to discontinue SmartThings Link effective June 30. That means several things but, most importantly, your SmartThings Link will stop functioning. You’ll no longer be able to use your SHIELD to control Zigbee or Z-Wave devices, which is certainly inconvenient for anyone who has invested deeply in creating an automated system.

Samsung is turning off support for the dongle that turned Nvidia Shield TV streamers into Smartthings home automation hubs. pic.twitter.com/4wHhCcHX4N

— Janko Roettgers (@jank0) March 1, 2021

Digital Media Zone points out that the SmartThings Link for NVIDIA Shield has lagged behind in software support, so the news should come as no surprise. Meanwhile, Samsung last year explained the reasoning behind why it plans to evolve its platform and retire legacy apps and services:

We are making some important shifts in our strategy to best position our platform for the future and investing more deeply in improving the stability and security of our platform. With these changes, we will empower a broad ecosystem of developers to integrate and innovate with SmartThings using technologies of their choice.

Over the course of the next several months, we plan to focus on the development of a flexible, API-based ecosystem with improved device integration methods. We will transition to new services and integrations that offer lower latency, higher reliability, and local execution. These new tools will simplify the user experience into a single mobile app with an intuitive and powerful design.

If you’re effected by the change, Samsung said it will offer a discount on a third generation SmartThings Hub.

Samsung SmartThings platform recently launched a Labs initiative that lets users test experimental features, including a universal remote and a gentle wake-up feature.

The post Samsung discontinues SmartThings Link support for SHIELD appeared first on xda-developers.

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