What Is Smart Hub on a Samsung TV? (2026 Explainer)
Smart Hub is simply the name Samsung gives its smart TV’s home screen and menu system — the launcher where your apps, free Samsung TV Plus channels, Gaming Hub, Ambient Mode, and smart-home controls live. Samsung’s own definition: it is “the intelligent menu system for Samsung Smart TVs,” the place where you access all the functions of your TV, download apps and games, and browse the internet (Samsung). It has shipped on Samsung smart TVs since 2011 and has run on Samsung’s Tizen operating system since 2015. Below: what it actually does, what lives inside it, which TVs have which version, and the everyday tasks — installing, moving, and deleting apps, signing in, and resetting Smart Hub — with the real menu paths, each cited to Samsung’s own support pages.
Smart Hub is the home screen of every Samsung smart TV — the menu you land on when you press the Home button on the remote. It’s where you find and install streaming apps, watch free Samsung TV Plus channels, open Gaming Hub, set an Ambient Mode screensaver, and control smart-home devices through SmartThings (Samsung).
It is not a box, a subscription, or a separate device — it’s software that’s already on your TV, and it’s free. It launched in 2011, moved to Samsung’s Tizen operating system in 2015, and on 2022-and-newer sets it appears as a full-screen home page with Media, Game, and Ambient tabs along the left side (Samsung).
What Smart Hub actually is (and isn’t)
The confusion is understandable: “Smart Hub” sounds like a gadget you’re supposed to buy. It isn’t. When Samsung says Smart Hub, it means the interface layer of the TV itself — the ribbon of app tiles or (on newer sets) the full-screen home page that appears over whatever you’re watching when you press Home. Samsung describes it as the intelligent menu system that gives you access to all the functions of the TV, including downloading apps and games and browsing the internet (Samsung — What is Smart Hub?).
Two clarifications worth internalizing. First, Smart Hub vs. Tizen: Tizen is the operating system underneath — the software the TV runs, versioned by model year on Samsung’s developer site (Samsung Developers) — while Smart Hub is the menu you see and click. Second, Smart Hub vs. the SmartThings hub: despite the near-identical names, SmartThings is Samsung’s smart-home platform; your TV can show a SmartThings panel inside Smart Hub, and newer sets can even act as a SmartThings hub for lights and sensors, but that’s one feature inside Smart Hub, not the same thing (Samsung — SmartThings on TV).
Smart Hub first appeared on Samsung TVs in 2011; sets older than that have no Smart Hub at all. The interface was redesigned in 2015, which is also when Samsung’s TVs moved to Tizen — Samsung’s developer model list shows 2015 sets on Tizen 2.3 and 2014-and-earlier sets on the pre-Tizen legacy platform (Samsung; Samsung Developers).
How to open Smart Hub
There’s exactly one move: press the Home button on your Samsung remote (the house icon; on older remotes it may be labeled Smart Hub). On 2015-and-newer Tizen sets, Smart Hub opens as a bar or full-screen home page over whatever is playing (Samsung). On 2022-and-newer TVs, the home screen is organized into tabs — Media, Game, and Ambient — reached from a sidebar on the left, and you can also open it by pressing the Home button on a paired game controller (Samsung).
One gotcha that sends people hunting for a “missing” Smart Hub: if you skipped the Terms and Conditions during initial setup, only the Apps tile appears and the full Apps list won’t open. Press the Apps tile, agree to the terms in the pop-up, and the list appears (Samsung). And if you ever see the message “Smart Hub is being updated” — that’s a normal, temporary state after a software update, not a fault.
What lives inside Smart Hub
Apps — the store and your row
The Apps tile is the Samsung app store: video, music, sports, and game apps, from Netflix and YouTube to Prime Video. You browse or search, install, and pin favorites to your home row — the step-by-step paths are in the tasks section below (Samsung). On newer sets, installed video apps also surface in the Media tab and game apps in the Game tab automatically (Samsung).
Samsung TV Plus — free live TV, no login
Samsung TV Plus is Samsung’s completely free, ad-supported streaming service — news, sports, entertainment, and more, with no download, login, subscription, or credit card. It’s built into Smart Hub on 2016-and-newer Samsung Smart TVs and needs only an internet connection. Some sets autoplay it at power-on; you can turn that off via Settings > General > Smart Features > Autorun Samsung TV Plus (Samsung — TV Plus).
Gaming Hub — console-free cloud gaming
On 2022-and-newer Samsung Smart TVs (plus select Smart Monitors and projectors), the Gaming Hub groups cloud-gaming services — Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, Utomik, Antstream Arcade, Blacknut, and Boosteroid — in one place. The hub itself is 100% free and needs only an internet connection and a Bluetooth or USB controller; the individual game services may need their own subscriptions. You enter it from the controller icon at the left of the home screen (Samsung — Gaming Hub). On 2020–2021 sets there’s no Gaming Hub, but some cloud-gaming apps are offered individually in the app store (Samsung).
Ambient Mode — the idle screen that isn’t a black rectangle
Ambient Mode turns the TV into a display for artwork, photos, weather, news headlines, or music visuals when you’re not actively watching — set up through the SmartThings app on your phone. On 2022+ sets it gets its own Ambient tab in Smart Hub (Samsung — Ambient Mode; Samsung).
SmartThings — your smart home on the TV
The SmartThings panel inside Smart Hub shows your connected bulbs, thermostats, cameras, and appliances in map or list form, and you can control them with the TV remote. On current sets it lives under Menu > Connected Devices > SmartThings, and with Samsung’s SmartThings dongle in a USB port the TV itself works as a SmartThings hub. A Samsung account and internet connection are required (Samsung — SmartThings on TV).
Sources, search, and settings
Smart Hub is also where your HDMI inputs and other sources live, where universal search looks across apps, and where you reach every TV setting — network, picture, software updates, and the Self Diagnosis tools like the Smart Hub reset covered below (Samsung).
Everyday Smart Hub tasks, step by step
Paths below are from Samsung’s current support documentation. Samsung itself warns that menus vary by model year, region, and software version — if a label differs slightly on your set, look for the nearest match (Samsung).
Find and install an app
- Press the Home button on the remote and navigate to Apps.
- Select an app to open its detail page — or use Search and type the app name.
- Select Install.
- When it finishes, choose Open to launch it now or Add to Home to pin it to your home row. Video and media apps are added to Media Home; game apps go to Game Home (Samsung).
Move or remove apps on the home row
- In the Apps list, scroll to the end and select List Edit.
- Highlight the app and press the down directional button to open the Options menu.
- Choose Move, then use left/right to reposition it and press Select — or choose Remove to take it off the home row (this unpins it; it doesn’t uninstall it).
- Shortcut: on many sets you can simply long-press the Select button on a highlighted app to move or remove it (Samsung).
Delete (or lock) an app
- Go to Apps, then select the Settings icon on the Apps screen to manage installed apps.
- Select the app, then choose Delete (or Lock/Unlock).
- Two catches: pre-installed apps can’t be deleted (Delete is disabled; Samsung’s US guide suggests Reinstall instead for those), and deleting removes the app’s data, so have your login handy for a reinstall. Locking asks for the TV PIN — the default is 0000, changeable via Menu > Settings > All Settings > General & Privacy > System Manager > Change PIN (Samsung; Samsung US).
Sign in with a Samsung account
You need a Samsung account signed in on the TV to download apps and use network-based smart services — the account itself is free (Samsung; Samsung).
- Press Home, then go to Settings.
- Select General, then System Manager.
- Select Samsung Account, then sign in or create an account (Samsung).
Reset Smart Hub (the fix-all — with a catch)
The catch first: resetting Smart Hub signs you out of your Samsung account and every app, and resets Smart Hub settings, downloaded apps, and stored accounts. Gather all your app logins before you start, and expect to reinstall and re-sign-in afterward (Samsung US; Samsung).
- 2019 and later: go to Settings > Support > Device Care > Self Diagnosis > Reset Smart Hub.
- 2018 and earlier: go to Settings > Support > Self Diagnosis > Reset Smart Hub (no Device Care layer).
- Enter the TV PIN when asked — the default is 0000.
- After the reset, run through the on-screen setup, sign back in, and reinstall your apps (Samsung US).
Which TVs have Smart Hub? The year & platform rough guide
Every Samsung smart TV from 2011 onward has some form of Smart Hub; every one from 2015 onward runs it on Tizen. Samsung doesn’t publish a single consumer-facing year table, so the guide below is assembled from two of Samsung’s own documents: its official model-number explainer (the letter in your model code that maps to a year — Samsung’s chart currently lists through C = 2023) and its developer model-group list (which maps each year to a Tizen version). Treat the letter column as a rough guide — find your exact model code under Settings > Support > About TV (Samsung).
| Model year | Model-code letter* | Platform / Tizen version | Smart Hub highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–2014 | D, E, F, H/HU | Legacy platform (pre-Tizen) | First-generation Smart Hub panels; apps via the old Samsung Apps store. |
| 2015 | J | Tizen 2.3 | Smart Hub redesigned; Tizen era begins. |
| 2016 | K | Tizen 2.4 | First sets that support Samsung TV Plus. |
| 2017 | M | Tizen 3.0 | — |
| 2018 | N | Tizen 4.0 | Last year with the short reset path (Support > Self Diagnosis). |
| 2019 | R | Tizen 5.0 | Device Care arrives; Smart Hub reset moves inside it. |
| 2020 | T | Tizen 5.5 | Some cloud-gaming apps via the store (no Gaming Hub). |
| 2021 | A | Tizen 6.0 | Some cloud-gaming apps via the store (no Gaming Hub). |
| 2022 | B | Tizen 6.5 | Big reorg: full-screen Home with Media / Game / Ambient tabs; Gaming Hub debuts. |
| 2023 | C | Tizen 7.0 | — |
| 2024 | D | Tizen 8.0 | — |
| 2025 | F | Tizen 9.0 | — |
| 2026 | H | Tizen 10.0 | Current model year. |
*Letters through C (2023) come straight from Samsung’s model-number guide; 2024–2026 letters are read from the model names in Samsung’s developer list (e.g., DU8000 for 2024, U8000F for 2025, U8000H for 2026). Year-to-feature notes are cited to the Samsung pages linked throughout this article.
If your older Samsung’s Smart Hub is missing the apps you want
Smart Hub ages. Streaming services update their apps for current Tizen versions and quietly drop older ones, and platform features have hard floors: Samsung TV Plus needs a 2016-or-newer set, and Gaming Hub needs 2022 or newer — on 2020–2021 TVs you only get whatever individual cloud-gaming apps the store still carries (Samsung; Samsung). When an app you want simply isn’t in your TV’s store anymore, the pragmatic fix isn’t a new TV — it’s a $30–$100 streaming stick in an HDMI port, which brings its own current app platform and leaves Smart Hub behind. Picks condensed to one line each, cited to named reviewers:
Affiliate note: buy through a link below and we may earn a commission — at no extra cost to you. It never sways the picks.
Replacing the whole TV instead? Every current Samsung runs the modern Smart Hub described above — start with our researched guide to the best Samsung TVs →
Upgrading the setup? Catch it on sale
TVs and streaming devices go on deep discount more often than you’d think, and model-year churn means today’s flagship is next season’s clearance. Join our Deal Alerts and we’ll email you the genuinely good AV deals and honest buying tips — no spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Double opt-in, so confirm via the email we send. No spam — just real deals and useful AV advice.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Smart Hub free?
- Do I need a Samsung account to use Smart Hub?
- Is Smart Hub the same thing as Tizen?
- Why is an app missing from my Smart Hub?
- Does resetting Smart Hub delete my apps?
- My remote has no Smart Hub button — where did it go?
Keep going: related Samsung TV guides
Whether Smart Hub is behaving or misbehaving, these walk you through the next step:
- 📲 Adding apps? Full walkthrough → how to download apps on a Samsung Smart TV
- 🔄 Stuck on a message? Fixes → “Smart Hub is being updated” — what to do
- ⬆️ Menus acting oddly? A software update often fixes it → how to update a Samsung Smart TV
- 🧨 Need the nuclear option? Full guide → how to reset a Samsung TV
- 📶 Apps won’t load at all? Check the connection → Samsung TV not connecting to Wi-Fi and Samsung TV remote not working
- 🔵 One app misbehaving? Compare with → Disney+ not working on Samsung TV and HBO Max not working on Samsung TV
- 📺 Shopping instead? Our researched picks → the best Samsung TVs and do smart TVs have Bluetooth?