[Update: New renders and colors] Galaxy Buds+ renders confirm no design changes for Samsung’s new wireless earbuds

Update (01/21/2020 @ 5:50 AM ET): New renders of the Galaxy Buds+ show off the new earphones in different color variants. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on December 19, 2019, is preserved as below.

Samsung is hard at work preparing the next 3 smartphones in the Galaxy S line up: the Galaxy S11, S11e, and S11+. We know this because multiple leaks have revealed the designs, displays, and camera specifications. Alongside the new smartphones, though, Samsung is seemingly preparing to refresh the Galaxy Buds, the company’s truly wireless earbuds. The new earbuds are expected to be called the Galaxy Buds+, and they’ll provide a major upgrade over the current Galaxy Buds with the addition of active noise cancellation. Famed leaker Evan Blass and Samsung news site SamMobile have previously revealed the existence of the new wireless earbuds, with the latter even linking to an alleged support page for the new product. Now, we’ve uncovered the strongest evidence yet for the existence of the new Galaxy Buds+, thanks to the Samsung SmartThings app.

Galaxy Buds+

SmartThings is Samsung’s brand for its home automation suite. The latest version of the Android app for SmartThings, version 1.7.41-25, rolled out on the Google Play Store this week. We decoded the APK to examine its resources and discovered new animations for a product called “budsplus.” Multiple lines of code in the SmartThings app clearly mark “buds” and “budsplus” as different products, so it’s safe to say that these animations are for the new Galaxy Buds+. The animations show the charging case and the wireless earbuds, confirming that the basic design of the Galaxy Buds+ is unchanged from the current generation Galaxy Buds.

Besides the name and design, the SmartThings app doesn’t reveal any other information about the new wireless earbuds. We can’t confirm if they support ANC. We don’t know if they’ll have onboard storage. We don’t know what colors will be available, what the price will be, and when they will launch. It probably won’t be long before the full specifications of the Galaxy Buds+ leak through online retailers, though.

New 2020 Smart Home Products from Samsung

Apart from the new wireless earbuds, the latest version of the SmartThings app also contains strings pertaining to several of Samsung’s upcoming 2020 smart home products. The strings describe an “easy setup” process for a new air purifier, refrigerator, and oven.

<string name="easysetup_prepare_2020_air_purifier_button_guide_1">If your device buttons are icons, press the one shown below.</string>
<string name="easysetup_prepare_2020_air_purifier_button_guide_2">If your device has both %1$s and %2$s buttons, use the %3$s button.</string>
<string name="easysetup_prepare_2020_air_purifier_confirm">When AP is blinking on your air purifier, press the %s button.</string>
<string name="easysetup_prepare_2020_air_purifier_icon">&lt;u>&lt;font color=#3695dd>Does your device have icons for buttons?&lt;/font>&lt;/u></string>
<string name="easysetup_prepare_2020_air_purifier_main">On your air purifier, press and hold the %1$s or %2$s button for more than 5 seconds until %3$s appears.</string>
<string name="easysetup_2020_refrigerator_confirm_top">When AP is blinking on your refrigerator, press the %1$s button until %2$s appears.</string>
<string name="easysetup_qr_oven_lcd_main">"Scan the QR code on your oven's screen."</string>
<string name="easysetup_qr_secondary_button_confirm">Add device without QR scan</string>

At IFA 2019, Samsung confirmed they were working on new smart home products such as these, so we’re not surprised to see these strings appear in the SmartThings app. We can probably expect several of these products to be unveiled at CES 2020 next month.