SDC 21: Samsung announces Tizen OS improvements, opening it up for other TV brands


Samsung held their Samsung Developer Conference 2021 (SDC21) yesterday, where they announced a number of new software products across their ecosystem. Samsung’s SmartThings platform will soon be completely integrated with Matter standard, Bixby will be capable of on-device command processing and Samsung’s Tizen software will soon be available on more devices.

The Tizen OS is getting a couple of updates that enable new capabilities in Samsung smart TVs, such as:

  • Video communication based on partnership with Google to allow users to enjoy better video calling on TVs via AI-enabled focus and zoom features.
  • Samsung Health on Smart TVs that connects with a webcam to analyze movements and provide real-time feedback during a workout.
  • More realistic gaming thanks to HDR10+, with automated settings for low latency and HDR calibration.

In addition to this, Samsung announced the Tizen TV Platform Licensing, which should provide third-party TV manufacturers access to Samsung’s Tizen OS for their own smart TVs.

The second news is about Samsung’s SmartThings platform, which will soon be integrated with the Matter industry standard protocol. This should allow SmartThings-compatible devices to interface with a wider variety of smart home products across different ecosystems.

And lastly, Bixby, which is Samsung’s voice assistant, is receiving some upgrades soon that will enable the usage of on-device AI and deep neural networks to process commands on devices themselves. Samsung expects this change to make Bixby respond up to 35% faster.