As some people remember, being able to unlock the door in multiple ways was the very first use case that ever brought me to home automation. For those of us who have limited use of our hands, it’s really helpful. But plenty of other people use it too, for example if you have someone you want to let in that you can see through your video doorbell and you aren’t home at that moment. Like a plumber who gets there while you are hung up in traffic. Or even just for little kids Who have a key fob device.
Back in 2014 when I was first looking into home automation of this type, smartthings was one of the only competitors in this price range that did offer multiple hands-free methods of unlocking the door. Staples, for example, did not. Harmony did, but only if you were at home on the same Wi-Fi. You couldn’t do it from outside the home.
A year or so ago one disability blog surveyed readers to see what they thought the most helpful smart home devices were. Amazon echo was top of the list. A hands-free smart lock came in second.
Fortunately now there are a number of systems that do allow you to unlock a door or disarm the security system hands free remotely (Abode, for example, did at least the last time I checked it) and another group, usually older systems, that does not, like ADT.
ADT finally started allowing you to send yourself a reminder if you left home and hadn’t armed the system, but not actually arm or disarm it automatically.
So I think there’s an understandable philosophical divide with some companies seeing it as an important feature, while others see it as a potential security problem. Choice is good. 
But the issue for me right now is that smartthings used to allow this and now it looks like they aren’t going to. That really concerns me. 
I agree with all of those Who said this ought to be an option you could set on your account, but maybe they aren’t going to.
Unfortunately, the combination of not being able to arm/disarm remotely, not being able to unlock a door automatically, and the app still not being usable for those dependent on voice readers means I can no longer recommend the SmartThings system for anyone wanting low-cost home automation for accessibility reasons. Samsung clearly is not considering those use cases in their current designs.
