Family Care is similar to Amazon’s paid offering, Alexa Together, which the company quietly discontinued earlier this year. Samsung’s service taps into smart devices in people’s homes and applies artificial intelligence to determine their daily patterns and send alerts to caregivers when it detects anomalies – for example, it can send notifications when there’s activity in the morning – e.g. Get a Galaxy phone—or if you don’t have one yet.
According to Samsung’s press release, the Home Care service can also help caregivers set and receive reminders for things like checking blood pressure and taking medications, and allows them to set and manage smart home routines in family members’ homes. Samsung said the service also allows users to schedule doctor appointments through a Galaxy smartphone or Samsung TV (2024 and newer models). Additionally, location alerts allow caregivers to be notified when a family member leaves or arrives at a location, which can help ensure they keep to their scheduled appointments.
There are other functions. Samsung says caregivers can use Family Care to set up SmartThings automations to perform actions such as turning on an air purifier when outdoor air quality drops, turning off an induction cooker that isn’t on, or looking inside the refrigerator to see what foods their loved one has Groceries may be needed – assuming they have connected Samsung devices. It’s unclear whether the service will work with any non-Samsung devices connected to the SmartThings platform.
Smart home technology has great potential to help older adults age in place (live independently at home for longer), especially because it allows caregivers to stay connected digitally. However, there are some problems with current technology: Connected devices can be complex to set up, difficult to maintain remotely, and performance isn’t always consistent enough to be relied upon. Best Buy and Amazon are trying to solve these problems through paid services in this field: Best Buy launched Assured Living in 2017, and Amazon launched Alexa Together in 2021.
While Samsung’s home care service is free, it does require a Galaxy smartphone and relies on Samsung devices and presumably a SmartThings hub. (We’ve reached out to Samsung for clarification.) All of this could be a barrier to entry for many. The company applies artificial intelligence technology to enhance services, which can help solve reliability and ease-of-use issues with some smart home devices, but it is unclear how artificial intelligence is integrated with the service.
Beginning August 16, Family Care can be downloaded from the Lifestyle tab of the SmartThings app.
