Samsung and LG now build smart home hubs directly into TV software, cutting the need for separate hardware.
Matter reduces device friction, but full control still depends on the right Thread hardware, not Matter support alone.
Ad-supported data models fund this shift, adding privacy and long-term support questions to the connected home.
For a decade, a smart TV meant one thing: a screen loaded with Netflix, YouTube, and a handful of other apps. That definition is shifting. Television software now handles tasks that once needed separate boxes: locking doors, dimming lights, and checking a doorbell camera. Streaming opened the door. Home control is walking through it.
Samsung and LG are folding smart home platforms into TV software rather than treating them as side apps. Samsung has built SmartThings Hub functionality into select 2022-and-later models, including the Q60 series and above, though some device types still need extra hardware.
Where active, a Samsung TV can find and manage connected devices and show a live map of the smart home on screen. LG follows a similar path through webOS's Home Hub, tied to the ThinQ platform. A partnership with Google lets compatible webOS TVs act as full hubs for Google Home too.
This shift carries weight. A hub used to sit in a small plastic puck plugged into a router, easy to forget about. Now the control layer lives inside the screen a household checks every day. Few people buy a TV for its hub feature, but once it sits ready to use, turning it on takes almost no effort.
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Three traits make the TV a strong fit. It holds the biggest screen and most passive attention in the home, so a doorbell alert or camera feed can appear without anyone hunting for it. It runs on a stable internet connection, an operating system, and a large display, so adding home control needs no new purchase. It also sits where families gather, giving voice and remote commands a pattern people already know, unlike a speaker on a kitchen counter.
Matter, the smart home standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance, does real work here. Matter handles how devices talk to each other, but it is not a network technology on its own. Thread, the low-power mesh protocol many Matter devices run on, sits apart from it.
Linking Thread devices needs a Thread Border Router, not Matter support alone. Some TVs carry that Thread hardware. Matter support alone does not guarantee it. So the claim reads narrower than 'Matter TVs replace the hub': sets with Matter support work better as smart home controllers, and those with the right Thread hardware also connect Thread devices without another box.
The bigger shift has little to do with which protocol wins. It is the move from commands to intent. Early smart home control on a TV worked one step at a time, a remote or voice command triggering a single action. The newer model reads context.
A phrase like 'going to bed' or a pattern such as the TV switching off after 11 pm can set off a full sequence across locks, thermostat, lights and cameras. Nobody needs to remember which device does what. The system turns a stated goal into a chain of device actions, and an AI assistant often sits between the request and the result.
Business logic sits behind this shift too. TV platforms build advertising and data collection into their software. Google TV's own support pages list watch activity, app use, and device IDs among the data collected. Connected TV ads can draw on activity from other devices in the same house. Roku offers similar ad and identifier controls.
As a TV threads into more household routines, its platform gains a wider view of daily activity, raising the value of data tied to that ecosystem. The home hub feature arrives next to an ad-funded platform model already in place. Few people question that trade openly.
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Putting home control on a TV brings a real risk, though it runs deeper than one point of failure. Most smart home setups keep more than one control path, so a frozen TV will not lock every device. The sharper risk sits in relying on one brand's support cycle.
As more household tasks route through a TV platform, that company's update schedule, compatibility choices, and eventual end of support turn into household infrastructure decisions, not just entertainment ones.
The deeper pattern has little to do with televisions alone. It is about how convergence works across consumer tech. A device rarely needs to lead every category to absorb nearby ones. It needs a spot in the home, a live connection, and enough ease to make another purchase pointless.
The smart speaker set that pattern for voice control. The television may stretch it across the whole home, not by replacing a phone, speaker, or standalone hub, but by turning into the shared interface where all three end up working together.
The real test ahead has nothing to do with which brand ships the sharpest hub. It comes down to how these platforms handle failure: a firmware bug, a dropped model line, or a service outage on a night the front door needs locking. A television that manages entry locks and security cameras carries the same reliability burden as any piece of home infrastructure. Judging it only by picture quality and app selection misses where the real stakes now sit.
Yes. Many newer smart TVs can connect with and control compatible smart-home devices, allowing users to manage lighting, cameras, appliances, thermostats, and other devices from the television.
Matter provides a common standard that helps compatible smart-home devices work across different ecosystems. TVs that support Matter can function as smart-home controllers, while some models also include the networking hardware needed for Thread devices.
Compatible smart TVs can display feeds from supported security cameras and doorbells. This allows users to monitor parts of their home without switching to a smartphone or separate security display.
AI could move smart TVs beyond individual commands toward intent-based automation. Instead of controlling devices separately, users could make requests such as preparing the home for movie night or bedtime, with compatible systems coordinating multiple devices.
Not completely. Some televisions now include hub functionality, but dedicated hubs can still provide broader compatibility, redundancy, and smart-home management. The TV is increasingly becoming one of several central interfaces rather than automatically replacing every dedicated hub.