For a cleaner SmartThings Home screen, customize Favorites for the devices and manually run Routines you use most, then hide whole rooms that do not need to appear there. Keep the full device inventory organized in Rooms, and use the app’s general settings only when you want to change how SmartThings behaves—not just what the dashboard shows.
Start with Favorites for your most-used controls
SmartThings describes Favorites as a dashboard for frequently used devices, manually run Routines, Location settings, and Services. The app’s landing page is intended for quick access, not necessarily for displaying every device in your home.
To edit it, open Favorites, tap More Options (⋮) > Edit favorites, and use Add (+) to choose items. Drag icons into the order that makes sense for your household. To clear an item from the dashboard, press and hold it and select Remove from Favorites. That removes the shortcut from Favorites; it does not mean the device itself has been deleted. The exact controls may vary by app version. SmartThings Support’s guide to using the app documents these steps.
Hide rooms that do not need to appear on Home
If a whole room adds clutter but its devices should remain available, hide the room from the Home screen rather than deleting it. Samsung describes room hiding as a temporary Home screen customization. Its instructions are Galaxy-phone focused, so labels and paths may differ on iOS or other Android devices. If your app’s Home screen editing controls do not match Samsung’s screenshots, check the options in your installed version instead of assuming the room must be removed. Samsung’s SmartThings setup guide covers room visibility and examples of the Home screen controls.
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Use Rooms to organize the full device inventory
Rooms group devices by area, making a larger inventory easier to scan even when not every room belongs on Home. Removing a room is an organization change, not a way to delete its devices: SmartThings says devices assigned to a removed room are moved to another room as part of the removal flow. See SmartThings Support’s Locations guide for the documented distinction between rooms and Locations.
| Action | What it changes | What happens to devices |
|---|---|---|
| Hide a room | Temporarily keeps that room off the Home screen. | They remain available; hiding is not deletion. |
| Remove a room | Changes how devices are grouped. | Devices are moved to another room in the documented flow; they are not deleted. |
| Remove a Location | Removes the Location and its associated SmartThings setup. | Devices, rooms, Routines, and linked services tied to it are permanently deleted. |
Do not remove a Location as a dashboard-cleanup shortcut. SmartThings identifies that action as permanent and much broader than hiding or removing a room.
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Turn repeated multi-device actions into a manual Routine
When you often trigger several device actions together, consider putting them in a manually run Routine. SmartThings describes these as one-button controls for actions across multiple devices, accessible from Favorites or the Routines tab. Its guide describes adding a Routine from the Routines tab. This is useful for a repeated combination—such as a set of lights and other devices you routinely control together—but it is not necessary for every individual device. See SmartThings Support UK’s Routines guide.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Change general app settings only when you mean to change app behavior
For app-wide controls, open Menu and tap the gear. Depending on your platform and app version, settings may include notifications, app features, mobile presence, automatic Bluetooth, and privacy-related options. These affect how the app operates, rather than simply which shortcuts are visible on Home. Review what a setting controls before changing it, particularly location or privacy options. SmartThings’ app guide and Samsung’s Galaxy-focused setup guide describe examples; available controls can differ across builds and platforms.
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Rank #3
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Choose the cleanup that matches the clutter
- A few unwanted tiles: Remove those shortcuts from Favorites.
- A whole room that rarely needs to be visible: Hide the room while keeping its devices available.
- A confusing device inventory: Use Rooms to regroup devices; removing a room does not delete them.
- A common combination of device actions: Make it a manually run Routine and surface it in Favorites if you want one-tap access.
- App behavior such as notifications or presence: Review Menu > gear, understanding that this changes more than the dashboard’s contents.
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