In a constantly changing world where technology has become a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, the question of how humans adjust to technological change has emerged as a critical topic of focus. Becoming conscious of technology is therefore necessary, to learn, to adapt, to reduce alienation between humans and technologies, and to create a positive relationship between them. When it comes to technological advancements, most cities across the globe are embarking on various ‘smart’-based initiatives that seek to use technological developments to enhance people’s lives and make society more productive. Within such smart cities, citizens are often expected to become active ‘collaborators’ in producing smartness through things like participation in community workshops, citizen science projects, and ‘hackathons’. However, and as several human geographers have highlighted, such technocratic forms of collaboration maintain entrenched forms of hierarchical power, with citizens usually figured as passive ‘consumers’ or ‘users’ of smart technologies rather than as real transformative participants. In this paper, I explore how ‘collaboration’ in the smart city might be thought differently in ways that challenge the more utilitarian senses that dominate much political and academic discussion. I do this through an engagement with Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of technology. In particular, I explore the distinction he draws between ‘interindividual’ and ‘transindividual’ modes of relations and how they entail different political senses of what collaboration between humans and technologies might entail. I flesh this out by drawing on interview research with stakeholders and citizens who are in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Through this research, I highlight how collaboration is differently imagined by stakeholders and citizens and how these imaginaries explore alternate ways of living in and relating to smart urbanism and smart mobilities today.