Samsung Developer Conference 2021–Recap

The Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) for 2021 kicked off on October 26, 2021, and we hope you enjoyed the keynote and highlight sessions. As with many events, there is so much information to digest. Fortunately, with the virtual format this year, developers can go back and review the sessions they’ve watched and study how they might take advantage of all the opportunities available with Samsung platforms, SDKs, and services. While there are too many announcements and technologies to cover in one post, here are some moments from the conference that should be interesting to developers.

Keynote

Samsung Electronics President DJ Koh began the conference, as he’s done in previous years. The Keynote Session included overviews of announcements that were described in more detail during the Highlight Sessions, Tech Talks, and Code Labs.

Voice Control of IoT Devices (Bixby/SmartThings)

Samsung Mobile Senior Vice President Daniel Ahn kicked off the announcements at SDC with a keynote session highlighting the integration of Bixby voice control to the SmartThings ecosystem with details from SmartThings Vice President Samantha Fein.

Technical talks with more details of the integration for developers and device manufacturers are also available.

• Bixby : Best voice interface for connected experience
• Enabling intelligent voice control on your IoT devices

Further, the SmartThings platform team provided technical talks on the new SmartThings Edge platform and SmartThings Build for use in multi-family home environments.

Support for the Matter standard was announced during the highlight session. Samsung Electronics Vice President Jaeyong Jung and SmartThings Vice President Samantha Fein talked about the bright future for home automation with Matter in this highlight session.

The Samsung Newsroom has more information on the Bixby and SmartThings integration as well as the Matter standard support.

Security and Privacy with Samsung Knox

Samsung Executive Vice President KC Choi details how Samsung Knox unlocks the $80B enterprise market with devices and services to ensure that critical data is secure and employee information is kept confidential. In the Tech Talk sessions below, Samsung B2B product experts give developers the information they need to integrate their own apps and services for this lucrative market segment.

• Samsung eSE: A trusted partner for enhanced security
• Redefining edge computing & foldables for B2B
• Beyond a limit with the mobile B2B partner program

Developers with solutions for the enterprise market should sign up for the Knox Partner Program.

Services and Solutions for SmartTV Platform

At SDC21, developers interested in smart TV solutions had plenty to learn. In the keynote, Samsung Eelectronics Senior Vice President Yongjae Kim and Samsung Research Vice President Bill Mandel discussed many new and exciting opportunities for developers with the Tizen platform, which are available for viewers to watch in these sessions.

• What’s new in Samsung smart TV services
• What’s new in Tizen 6.5
• What’s next for Tizen: Smart screen for business
• Build a trusted service with Samsung Tizen security
• What’s new in the Tizen web platform for Smart TV

Game Developers are Rising Stars with Samsung

The experience of the last 18 months has shown that self-care is important to our well-being. By allowing us to disconnect from reality, games help reduce stress and give a temporary reprieve from the stresses of daily life. Samsung support for gamers and game developers comes to the forefront at SDC21 with these important sessions.

• Galaxy Store: Games-focused, developer-friendly
• Games for everyone: Samsung Instant Plays

In addition to mobile gaming, the announcement of HDR10+ for gaming will delight gamers looking forward to top-quality experiences on smart TVs.

Building Better Web Experiences with Samsung Internet

The Samsung Internet browser ships with every Samsung Galaxy phone. The developers and advocates for Samsung Internet want to ensure that consumers have the best possible experiences, mixing web content with mobile hardware.

• How to build browser extensions on Samsung Internet
• Unfolding the future of responsive web design

One UI Brings Beautiful and Secure Interactions to Your Mobile World

Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President Janghyun Yoon unveiled the One UI 4 platform, showing numerous examples of beautifully designed cross-device experiences, such as taking a photograph from Galaxy Z Flip3, sharing to the Galaxy Book, and editing using a Galaxy Tab S with S Pen. While beauty is only skin deep, One UI 4 adds layers of security to these experiences. Learn more about One UI 4 in these sessions.

• One UI 4 design: Focus, comfort, self-expression
• One UI: Designing a more approachable experience

Designers and Developers Explore New Worlds with One UI Watch Platform

Galaxy Watch4 was introduced at Galaxy Unpacked in August 2021. The One UI Watch platform uses Wear OS powered by Samsung. Developers interested in bringing their ideas to the new platform should check out these talks.

• Watch ecosystem: A new era
• Build your app in the new watch ecosystem
• Galaxy Watch4 for enterprise business
• New health platform based on Wear OS powered by Samsung

Further, designers who are interested in expressing their creative side with watch face designs should view this session on how to use Watch Face Studio to create beautiful designs without writing code.

Rewarding Successful Developers with the Best of Galaxy Store Awards

Samsung Sr. Developer Evangelist Tony Morelan presents the Best of Galaxy Store Awards, now in their 4th year. These awards are Samsung’s way to express gratitude to those developers and designers who are bringing beautiful and exciting apps, games, and themes to Galaxy Store.

For the second year, the Bixby team recognized the top developer and capsule for their platform.

Following up with Samsung

This site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with Samsung devices and services. Stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. Visit the Marketing Resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps through the Galaxy Store. Finally, our Developer Forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the Galaxy ecosystem.

Thank you for joining us for SDC21 and we look forward to seeing you in 2022.