Samsung Unveils Next Generation Family Hub Refrigerator With Bixby and SmartThings Integration

Samsung has announced its next generation Family Hub refrigerator with Bixby and SmartThings integration. The fridge won a CES 2018 Best of Innovation award.

Family Hub in 2018 offers a wide range of smart features that allow consumers to do what they could not do before. These include syncing up food storage with meal preparation, keeping family members better connected and organized, and providing enhanced entertainment. Family Hub is also more intuitive and intelligent with the addition of Bixby voice control and its integration with Samsung’s SmartThings IoT ecosystem.

“Since Family Hub’s introduction in 2016, consumers have embraced it as their home’s digital command center to help manage food, family and fun. We’ve been listening closely to current users and created a new Family Hub that’s even smarter and more advanced than before,” said John Herrington, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Home Appliances, Samsung Electronics America. “The integration of Bixby and SmartThings into the Family Hub is bringing a new level of intelligent connectivity into the room where people spend the most time: the kitchen.”




Here's a look at the fridge's features...

Simplifying Life with Connected Home Control
The new Family Hub works with the SmartThings ecosystem, allowing users to control and monitor their connected home from the Family Hub screen. The SmartThings app seamlessly connects the Family Hub with hundreds of Samsung and third party compatible connected devices. So now, in addition to seeing what’s inside their fridge from the grocery store or leaving a note on the White Board to remind the kids to clean their rooms after school, users can do countless other things without ever leaving the kitchen. These include seeing who is at the front door with the ring doorbell, adjusting the thermostat, checking on a sleeping baby in the next room, and more, right from the refrigerator screen.



Enhancing Food Management
Family Hub helps consumers manage food, with the View Inside app that enables users to see inside the fridge from anywhere. New for 2018, Meal Planner takes food management to a more personalized level by providing recipes for the family based on food preferences, dietary restrictions and food expirations dates. Family Hub also saves time and money with a new Deals app that gives users the ability to find great bargains and save them directly to the Shopping List or loyalty card.




Strengthening Family Connections
The new Family Hub keeps the family more closely connected and organized, with the customized ability to share calendars, photos and notes. With Bixby, Family Hub can also recognize individual voices and provide personalized information based on preferences. Ask “Hi Bixby, what’s new today?” and it will provide a read out of the news, weather and calendar updates specifically tailored to the user.

Creating New Ways to Have Fun at Home
With innovative TV and music options, the original Family Hub transformed the kitchen into an area for socializing with family and friends. Users can access millions of songs through various music streaming platforms and live radio apps, and mirror their Samsung Smart TV. The new Family Hub also features AKG Premium Quality Sound Speaker for sound that is deep in bass and rich in mid-range2. Additionally, users can now stream content from their smartphone to the Family Hub refrigerator.

Samsung is expanding the Family Hub’s range of content with new collaborations with leading companies like HomeAdvisor, Pinterest, The Weather Company and Buzzfeed’s Tasty. Samsung also continues to collaborate with key partners including allrecipes, ring, and Grubhub to further refine and enhance the kitchen experience and promote smart lifestyle choices.

Samsung says it will expand the platform to four new 4D FDR models, bringing the total to 14. The new Family Hub will be available this spring.