LG has announced Amazon Alexa support for all its SmartThinQ line of home appliances, which include more than 100 refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers and vacuums.
LG has announced Amazon Alexa support for all its SmartThinQ line of home appliances, which include more than 100 refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers and vacuums.
The South Korean firm began to support Google Assistant for its SmartThinQ appliances in September last year. With the latest Amazon Alexa integration, the company’s connected devices are equipped with voice control capability using the two most popular smart assistants in the market.
LG appliances owners can now ask Alexa how much time is left in washing or drying cycles without visiting the laundry room; turn on robotic vacuums when their hands are busy with cooking; or ask smart refrigerators to make extra ice for a coming dinner party. All these actions can also be done with Google Assistant or LG’s SmartThinQ mobile app.
“With LG SmartThinQ appliances, we’ve made it simpler than ever to create a smart home experience that helps consumers better manage their busy lives. Whether they prefer to use our SmartThinQ mobile app or voice commands with either Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant, LG lets the consumer choose what’s right for them when it comes to controlling their smart home,” said David VanderWaal, senior vice president of marketing at LG Electronics USA.
Although the company has less innovative products, LG adopts an open strategy in the smart home market, creating partnerships with all major players and providing various options to meet the mass market’s needs.
Another South Korean technology company Samsung has launched a couple of pioneering products in the market and made some breakthroughs with its IoT ecosystem SmartThings. However, in terms of voice assistant, the company focuses on using its own voice assistant Bixby for native voice control. SmartThings also supports both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Homeowners may ask Bixby to check what foods are left in their smart refrigerator. Since SmartThings also connects with other home gadgets, they may ask the assistant to show live feeds of their security camera at the front door on a smart TV.