How to start a smart home using Samsung SmartThings

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge

Before the smart home was as popular as it is today, monitoring or automating your home was something limited to the more technically minded. Then along came Samsung’s SmartThings, providing a user-friendly, organized way of controlling a smart home.

I came across the system back in 2015 and immediately found that it provided that missing piece of my smart home: a way to automate my home via motion and door sensors, smart locks, Philips Hue lights, and Sonos smart speakers.

In addition, SmartThings was built to be open, with a hub that supported both of the main smart home protocols: Z-Wave and Zigbee. Although SmartThings launched with its own range of sensors and a smart plug, the idea was that third-party devices would also work with...