Have you ever received a phone call while watching TV and couldn't find the remote or press the mute button in time? It probably happened to all of us at some point, whether you were the one receiving or making the phone call. And if you were the latter, then you probably know how unpleasant it is to be greeted by TV background noise. It's not a great conversation starter, to say the least. Thankfully, One UI devices offer a solution.
Samsung thought of a way to address this inconvenience, and the workaround is available to Galaxy smartphone and tablet users through Samsung's smart home app, SmartThings. The solution: The app can automatically mute your Samsung TV or speakers/soundbar whenever you make or receive a phone call via your Galaxy phone or LTE/5G Galaxy tablet. If this sounds like something you'd want your Samsung smart TV to do, here's all you need to know.
Auto-mute your Samsung TV during phone calls using SmartThings
For this feature, you need SmartThings installed and set up on your Galaxy smartphone or LTE/5G tablet. As always, you can find the app on the Galaxy Store.
Assuming you already have the app, open it, access the “Menu” screen, and tap “Companion apps.” Next, select “Phone” from the list and tap “Set up.” You will then be asked to enable location and allow SmartThings Framework to use the location services on your device and make and manage phone calls.
You may be asked to enable other permissions for this SmartThings feature to work. Just follow the instructions in the pop-ups and tap “Allow.” When done, you should see your Samsung TV listed in the devices that can auto-mute when you make or receive calls on your Galaxy mobile device.
Note that this auto-mute feature may not work with every Samsung smart TV. Likewise, results may vary depending on the audio output type you use on the TV, and the feature might not function with TV-speaker setups that rely on optical audio output.