--- title: I turned my old Samsung Galaxy into a $200 smart home... description: An old Samsung Galaxy S21 FE gets repurposed into a smart home hub using three apps: SmartThings for a dedicated controller screen for connected devices,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I turned my old Samsung Galaxy into a $200 smart home hub, and it replaced three separate devices | daily.dev og:description: An old Samsung Galaxy S21 FE gets repurposed into a smart home hub using three apps: SmartThings for a dedicated controller screen for connected devices,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/kKDP6Ve5M.png og:image:alt: I turned my old Samsung Galaxy into a $200 smart home hub, and it replaced three separate devices og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I turned my old Samsung Galaxy into a $200 smart home hub, and it replaced three separate devices **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An old Samsung Galaxy S21 FE gets repurposed into a smart home hub using three apps: SmartThings for a dedicated controller screen for connected devices, AlfredCamera for turning the phone's camera and mic into a pet monitor, and Home Assistant's Companion app to expose the phone's ambient light sensor for brightness-based lighting automations. Each use case leverages existing phone hardware instead of buying new dedicated devices, with notes on keeping the phone charged and update interval delays (Home Assistant defaults to 15-minute sensor polling, with faster options down to one minute). ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can I use an old Android phone as a pet camera monitor? Install AlfredCamera on both the old phone and your everyday phone, then pair them through the app's mobile-device setup. The old phone acts as the camera for video and audio monitoring, while your primary phone serves as the viewer. The viewer app works on both Android and iOS, so the two devices don't need to run the same operating system. _daily.dev surfaces more hands-on guides for turning spare hardware into useful home tools._ ### How often does Home Assistant update ambient light sensor readings from a phone? The Home Assistant Companion app for Android updates illuminance readings at a normal interval of 15 minutes by default. Faster settings can push updates to as little as one minute, either continuously or only while the phone is charging, which matters when building brightness-based lighting automations that need to react quickly to changing daylight. _Home automation builders comparing sensor responsiveness trade-offs can track setup details like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My old phones replaced three smart devices in my Home Assistant setup](https://daily.dev/posts/my-old-phones-replaced-three-smart-devices-in-my-home-assistant-setup-13rkc8zfg) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My old Google Pixel has replaced half of my smart home products without costing me a penny](https://daily.dev/posts/my-old-google-pixel-has-replaced-half-of-my-smart-home-products-without-costing-me-a-penny-dktmrsrzl) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Samsung's Galaxy Upcycle promised to make old phones useful, then won an award for giving up](https://daily.dev/posts/samsung-s-galaxy-upcycle-promised-to-make-old-phones-useful-then-won-an-award-for-giving-up-ebob9dlfn) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your old phone is still better than half the smart displays people keep buying](https://daily.dev/posts/your-old-phone-is-still-better-than-half-the-smart-displays-people-keep-buying-xg49thss3) · XDA Developers · 4 upvotes · 1 comments - [Samsung SmartThings update adds elderly care monitoring with ambient sensing and AI](https://daily.dev/posts/samsung-smartthings-update-adds-elderly-care-monitoring-with-ambient-sensing-and-ai-ur6vbhoao) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#tech-news](https://daily.dev/tags/tech-news), [#android](https://daily.dev/tags/android) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I turned my old Samsung Galaxy into a $200 smart home hub, and it replaced three separate devices","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m"},"datePublished":"2026-10-01T19:34:04.445Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T19:35:19.959Z","description":"An old Samsung Galaxy S21 FE gets repurposed into a smart home hub using three apps: SmartThings for a dedicated controller screen for connected devices,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/de7f4e94ad6ffaca8e2433262434542d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/de7f4e94ad6ffaca8e2433262434542d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"tech-news,android","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I turned my old Samsung Galaxy into a $200 smart home hub, and it replaced three separate devices"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-old-samsung-galaxy-into-a-200-smart-home-hub-and-it-replaced-three-separate-devices-kkdp6ve5m#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How can I use an old Android phone as a pet camera monitor?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Install AlfredCamera on both the old phone and your everyday phone, then pair them through the app's mobile-device setup. 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