Family Care is similar to Amazon's paid offering, Alexa Together, which the company quietly discontinued earlier this year. Samsung's service uses smart devices in a person's home and applies artificial intelligence to determine their daily patterns and send alerts to a caregiver if abnormalities are detected – for example, it can send a notification when there is activity in the morning – such as using a Phone Galaxy – or if it didn't exist.
According to a Samsung press release, the family care service also helps caregivers set up and receive reminders for things like blood pressure checks and medication administration, and allows them to set up and manage smart home routines in their family member's home . Samsung says the service will also allow a user to schedule doctor's appointments through their Galaxy smartphone or Samsung TV (models 2024 and newer). Additionally, location alerts allow caregivers to receive a notification when their family member leaves or arrives at a location—helpful to make sure they make it to those appointments.
There are other features as well. Samsung says a caregiver can use Family Care to set up SmartThings automations to do things like activate an air purifier when the air quality outside drops, turn off the induction stove if it's left on, or see inside the refrigerator to you know what your loved one is shopping for. they might need – assuming they've 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 seniors stay in place (live independently in their homes for longer), especially because it allows a caregiver to stay in digital contact. However, there have been problems with current technology: Connected devices can be complicated to set up, difficult to maintain remotely, and don't always work consistently enough to be relied upon. Best Buy and Amazon have tried to address these issues with paid services in this space: Best Buy launched Assured Living in 2017, and Amazon launched Alexa Together in 2021. Both have since been discontinued.
Although the Samsung Family Care service is free, it requires a Galaxy smartphone and relies on Samsung devices and possibly a SmartThings hub. (We've reached out to Samsung for clarification.) All of this can be a barrier to entry for many. The company's application of AI technology to improve the service could help with reliability and ease-of-use issues around smart home devices, but it's unclear how AI is integrated with the service.
Family Care can be downloaded from the Life tab of the SmartThings app starting August 16.