Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

LG’s 2019 TVs slide Alexa next to Google Assistant, with Siri on the way

By
LG-TV-Amazon-Alexa
Image used with permission by copyright holder

LG announced that its 2019 ThinQ A.I. TVs will eventually support all three major voice assistants, in one form or another. Currently, these TVs embed LG’s own proprietary A.I. and the Google Assistant, but starting this month, Alexa will be added to 2019 ThinQ A.I. TVs, including LG UHD TVs, NanoCell TVs, and OLED TVs. TVs in North America will be the first to receive the update, with Europe and Asia getting it in the weeks to follow.

Using Alexa on an LG TV will require the Alexa app on a smartphone or tablet, for account creation and the management of skills and other preferences, plus the TV’s remote. To talk to Alexa, you press and hold the Amazon Prime Video button, while a short press will still launch the Amazon Prime Video app. There’s no need for an external speaker, like an Echo Dot, and Alexa routines will be supported, too.

The regular microphone button on the remote will trigger LG ThinQ by default, but depending on your settings it will hand-off requests it can’t handle to either Alexa or Google Assistant.

Related

As part of the announcement, LG also took the opportunity to remind us that the planned addition of Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit technologies is still on the horizon as a midyear update. When this happens, you’ll be able to control a 2019 LG TV via Siri commands through an iOS device or a HomePod.

LG’s strategy of delivering compatibility with all a multitude of voice assistants is a logical approach, and it’s not alone in doing so. Earlier this month, Sonos finally added Google Assistant compatibility to its range of Wi-Fi-connected speakers, giving users the choice of working with Alexa or Assistant — or both — within the same home network. Bose followed within a few days, adding Google Assistant to its existing collection of Alexa-enabled smart speakers.

The question now is, what will happen to companies that only support one of these voice-controlled helpers? Sony’s decision to use Android TV means it’s likely locked into Google Assistant for the foreseeable future. Or, as in Samsung’s case, what happens when you try to push a proprietary A.I. such as Bixby? We expect Samsung’s long-awaited Galaxy Home smart speaker to appear shortly, and when it does, it will face an uphill battle if Bixby remains the exclusive voice assistant.

Updated on May 24, 2019: Added new details around how Alexa works on 2019 LG TVs.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
LG adds Nvidia GeForce Now gaming to select 2021 smart TVs
Nvidia GeForce Now on LG TVs.

LG has announced that it is the first smart TV maker to debut a native app for Nvidia's GeForce Now online streaming gaming platform. The GeForce Now app will be available as a beta test on select 2021 TVs, including 4K OLED, QNED mini-LED, and NanoCell TV models in 80 markets globally. LG says the full list of compatible TVs will be released at a later date.

With the GeForce Now app installed, users will have access to 35 free-to-play games if they own a compatible controller, with no additional hardware required. Games include Rocket League, Destiny 2, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Crysis Remastered Trilogy. Games can be played at up to 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second, though there has been some recent controversy over this as Nvidia has admitted to capping some games at lower frame rates. (Digital Trends has put together a list of the best GeForce Now games.)

Read more
LG TVs can automatically kill the soap opera effect for Prime Video content
TV showing filmmaker mode logo.

LG is rolling out an update to the Filmmaker Mode feature on all 2020 and 2021 4K and 8K UHD Smart TVs starting this week. The update will let these TVs respond to a signal embedded in certain streaming shows and movies by automatically switching to Filmmaker Mode. For now, the feature only works with Amazon Prime Video content, but presumably, it could be applied to any streaming content from any service.

For the uninitiated, Filmmaker Mode -- the brainchild of the UHD Alliance -- is the TV industry's answer to the growing frustration over what's commonly known as the "soap opera effect." Motion-smoothing technologies that are designed to help modern flat-panel displays do a better job with fast-motion video, like sports content, have the unfortunate side effect of making lots of other content (like movies and TV shows) look unnatural and, in many cases, low-budget -- thus the soap opera analogy.

Read more
HBO Max finally launches on LG smart TVs in the U.S.
HBO Max logo on a tv screen.

If you're an LG TV owner who's been frustrated by having to access HBO Max through a set-top box or another streaming device and not natively through the TV, then it's your lucky day. Today LG Electronics USA and WarnerMedia announced that the HBO Max app is now available on LG smart TVs in the U.S.

After being made available to some LG television models in Latin America and the Caribbean in June, the HBO Max app can now be downloaded from the LG channel store to LG OLED TVs, LG QNED Mini-LED TVs, and LG NanoCell TVs made in the 2018-2021 model years and running webOS 4.0 and up.

Read more