I’m pretty sure that each Hue bulb is counted as a physical device. They certainly pushed me over the 200 limit.
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@black-paladin I was close to hitting the 200 limit and , for what it is worth, I switched all my ST interactions with Hue to @blueyetisoftware 's driver and have not imported any bulbs.
I now manage all Hue switching (apart from a couple of bulbs) through Hue scenes associated with Hue rooms and zones.
This vastly reduced my device count and works so much better than controlling bulbs directly in ST (via Hue). You get all the Hue niceness with smooth transitions, last state retention ect. ect. too - never looked back since switching 
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Thanks @TheHundredthIdiot, that’s a really interesting and useful suggestion. With nearly 100 Hue lights (I went a bit mad on a garden patio project 
) that would completely solve my device limit worries. I’m fearful of breaking a solid Hue integration that works and of presumably having to change a ton of lighting automations, but it sounds as though there are other advantages too and losing the popcorn effect on the patio lights would be cool. Thanks again.
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Yeah, takes a bit of sorting out but well worth it, from my pov anyway… good luck and have fun 
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@Jeff_Gallagher, i am pretty sure philips hue devices connected via the hue hub and add into the smartthings are considered as phyiscal devices, and that includes others too.
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@TheHundredthIdiot i am also using the blueyetisofware’driver for hue, but i do need the bulbs to be in smartthings so as to set automation of scenes/events via triggering of sensors or actions. So will have to import the hue devices over to the smartthings
@Tin_Hwee_Wang if you set up all your scenes in Hue against rooms and zones:
then these can be triggered from ST without the need to import individual bulbs to ST - just import the rooms/zones needed and play the scene (favourite) in the routine:
This has the advantages of, among others, smooth multi bulb transitions (no popping as multiple bulbs switch on/off/transition), colour/brightness changes on ‘on’ rather than seeing the transition from ‘last on’ state to new state you get in ST, quick responses and cutting down device count in ST (I have built up a lot of bulbs over the years!)…
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Hi, finally got an answer from SmartThings support. And they have confirmed that this limitation was intentional.
See below
o clarify it is not a bug, it is a planned limitation to create more consistent stability for users locations, and our developers did state that they may increase this limitation in the future, but we don’t have any planned date for that. You may be seeing other users with higher device counts due to the integration of virtual and third-party connected devices, which will add to the allocated 200-device limit.
To reiterate, it is a planned limitation and not a bug, and we don’t have any plans to reduce the limit, but may increase it at a future date. I hope this helps clarify further. Have a great day!
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There is the official answer from your support team finally. It would have been easier if this was just announced in advance so people could plan accordingly.
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Interesting, thanks for sharing. Right now hasn’t ST’s answer been to add another hub if we need more than 200 devices in a location? If so, have they changed their position on having/supporting more than one hub per location, especially for large homes that could easily go above the 200 device count limit?
No, because the limit is per location, not per hub. Adding an additional hub is a solution if you need more than 50 edge drivers. But it doesn’t impact the 200 devices total limit.
If so, have they changed their position on having/supporting more than one hub per location, especially for large homes that could easily go above the 200 device count limit?
I’m not sure what you’re referring to here, because the question of having more than one hub in a location has changed several times over smartthings history. But for over a year it’s been allowed to have more than one hub per location and it seems to work fine. The only issue is that if you have a routine that includes some devices from one hub and some devices from a different hub that routine will run in the cloud rather than running locally. But again, that doesn’t increase the number of devices allowed.
The number of devices allowed appears to be a UI limitation of the app, not anything to do with the hub. People with no hubs at all can run into it (and remember, that’s the vast majority of smartthings customers now).
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Yes they have, I’ve got 2 hubs in one location and only around 230 devices right now. Based on their reply it doesn’t matter how many hubs you have the limit is 200 devices including virtual devices. Also makes a joke of their new support for having multiple SmartThings stations on one ZigBee mesh.
So basically they are encouraging users not to buy SmartThings connected devices like Aeotec. Your better off with virtual devices. Very strange path they are taking
I’m sorry, I don’t understand this comment for a couple of different reasons.
One) from everything that customers have reported based on personal experience, at least most kinds of virtual devices do count towards the limit after they are created. They just don’t get caught at the time they are being created.
I know there’s a support comment that says they don’t count, but I don’t think that’s correct unless things have changed a lot.
Two) virtual devices are useful in many situations, but they can’t interact with the real physical world and so they can’t substitute for physical devices collecting actual data. A virtual Contact Sensor can be told to change its state to open, but it can’t detect that on its own like a physical sensor can. 
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I think this is more a reflection of the fact that, as they’ve said often, the vast majority of their customers have 15 or fewer devices. So they’ll just never hit this limit. It doesn’t put a lot of pressure on Samsung to make changes.
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And will devices brought on board in Matter from another bridge (when this happens this next month) count towards the limit?
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Their new limit count all devices towards the limit of 200 devices. I’ve just checked and I’ve got 220 devices in this location. Approx. 50 sensors are connected directly to one or the other of my two hubs. I’ve also got 15 zones connected to hue via the Edge beta driver. Plus 5 bulbs and 2 accessories.
I’ve 3 connected Samsung TVs and two SmartThings tags. I’ve also got 2 iPhones as arrival sensors. And 5 cloud connected devices. Everything else are virtual devices with Edge drivers.
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Currently I can add additional devices connected to Hue bridges and cloud connected devices that are already connected. I can add any virtual devices too. I can’t add any Matter/ZigBee or z wave devices. I also couldn’t add a new Samsung TV. I’ve ordered a ZigBee station to try out. But I don’t think I’ll be able to add this either. So pretty much the biggest issue is connecting Samsung devices and Aeotec devices. Which makes No Commercial sense for Samsung
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Well I’ll be returning a 65” TV. Not that this will be noticeable in their sales figures 
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This is annoying. I’ve had to replace my switchbot lock because it was damaged. Now I can’t add the new one. Is there anything at all that can be done? 
As a work around you could create a second ST location and use Sharptools to create automations between the 2 locations. You can’t use ST Routines for automations between locations.