Samsung has taken an early lead in the smart home race, confirming that SmartThings will be the first major platform to support Matter’s newly announced camera specification. That is, everything from compatible security cameras and video doorbells will be able to plug right into SmartThings, with fully integrated control as well as alerts — besting Apple Home and Google Home (and even Amazon’s Alexa).
The move pulls cameras into Matter’s multi-admin universe, where devices can serve across ecosystems without having to jump between device apps. For customers, the company promises easier setup, uniform privacy controls, and fewer lock-in headaches when combining brands.
What Matter 1.5 Adds for Cameras and Doorbells
The new update to Matter gives you core camera experiences out of the box: live video streaming, pan-tilt-zoom control, motion and person detection notifications, doorbell press events, and privacy zones.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which oversees Matter, designed these features to function locally wherever it could, so that speed and resilience would be there even if cloud services faltered.
Because Matter is designed for multi-orgs, a camera can be shared across platforms. In practice, that could mean a SmartThings camera showing up in a different ecosystem used by the household—without needing to be re-paired or losing important functionality.
Why Samsung Is First, and Why It Matters
Samsung has leisurely implemented SmartThings hubs in TVs, monitors, and some appliances this whole time, and these devices already serve as Matter controllers or Thread border routers. That footprint makes it easier to light up new Matter device types via software updates, rather than all-new hardware, giving Samsung a timing advantage.
Samsung says it worked with Aqara, Eve, and Ulticam on the first round of Matter-enabled cameras. Devices from those partners are due to start arriving from March 2026, and more brands are likely to join. The existing integration between SmartThings and Arlo or Ring is supported, but support for the new standard will mean it’s easier to mix and match devices in your smart home, without needing brand-specific integrations put together as last-minute jobs by different startups.
There’s still a large unknown: which of today’s cameras will get firmware updates to become Matter-compatible, and which ones will need fresh hardware. Early adopters would be well served to mind future-looking vendor roadmaps and the CSA’s certification list as it materializes.
Compatibility and Setup Expectations for SmartThings
SmartThings will add Matter camera support via an app and hub update. In conventional installations, Wi-Fi carries video and either Thread or Wi-Fi manages control signaling. Two of Matter’s organizing principles, end-to-end encryption and secure commissioning, will carry through to camera sessions; access controls are managed on a per-household-member basis within SmartThings.
Real-world example: a home with an Eve outdoor cam and an Aqara video doorbell could surface both feeds inside SmartThings with the same notifications and privacy zone settings, rather than two separate apps.
If a family later installs Google displays or an Apple tablet, Matter’s multi-admin will hopefully let them in without reconfiguring the cameras from scratch.
Rivals Hold for Now, but the Stakes Are Growing
Nowadays, Apple Home depends on HomeKit Secure Video for end-to-end encrypted storage and device control, but Google Home and Amazon Alexa both have their own robust camera ecosystems. None has so far announced full Matter camera support publicly, meaning it is now up to Samsung to define the baseline in terms of user experience and reliability. If SmartThings can nail performance and onboarding, it might affect how rivals choose to prioritize their rollouts.
CSA indicates that it is experiencing increased sustained growth in Matter certifications across devices, and cameras are one of the top requested add-ons from consumers as well as vendors. Cameras and doorbells are consistently ranked by analysts as best-selling smart home product categories, which makes this expansion an important strategic one for each ecosystem.
Beyond Cameras, Matter Adds Closures and Soil Sensors
Matter’s latest update also adds a “closures” category—made up of products like smart blinds, shutters, gates, and garage doors. The CSA argues that the new model increases security by delivering finer-grained state reporting back to platforms, cutting down on false positives and enabling stronger automations around handling various states of open or closed.
Support for soil sensors also comes online, paving the way for more intelligent irrigation schedules. A soil probe in a planter might cause blinds to adjust sunlight or signal sprinklers to water only when they detect moisture.
What to Watch Next for Matter Cameras and SmartThings
Watch SmartThings Hub release and app release notes, Connectivity Standards Alliance certification entries for camera models, and manufacturer firmware plans from early partners like Aqara and Eve. The first wave of Matter-native cameras will serve as a test of how smoothly live streaming, motion events, and privacy zones can flow across ecosystems—and whether Samsung’s head start has set a new ground for the smart home.
