Sometime in the fourth quarter, LG will bring Google Assistant to customers’ 2018 OLED and LCD TVs in seven more markets.
Google Assistant in LG TVs
Google’s voice assistant was already available in LG TVs in the US, and it will soon be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom. By then, it will support five languages.
LG says that Google Assistant can help TV users find content, “manage daily tasks, find answers or control compatible smart home devices”. Google added that there are now 5000 supported smart devices across hundreds of brands.
- “LG’s vision is to become a major name in all things AI based on our philosophy of open platform, open partnership and open connectivity,” said Brian Kwon, president of LG HEC. “Beyond the unrivaled picture quality that LG’s premium TVs deliver, the Google Assistant offers even more consumers a new level of intelligence in the home, aligned with LG’s mission to improve the daily lives of its customers through forward-thinking technology.”
In addition to Google’s system, LG is pushing Amazon Alexa and its own integrated voice recognition system (for playback control) under the “artificial intelligence” umbrella. LG is not alone here. Samsung claims to use AI for its resolution upscaling algorithm and Chinese brands are increasingly positioning its TVs as “intelligent”.
Only in 2018 LG TVs
Google Assistant will be available only in LG’s 2018 TVs. The company continues to refuse to update its webOS TV software in all previous TVs, including the 2017 OLED TVs that are still sold in stores.
The company added that the TVs are also compatible with Google Home, allowing customers to control certain features on the TV through voice commands given to external smart speakers. This feature will soon be expanded to more regions along with Amazon Alexa support.
- “Customers in English-speaking markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada can already connect Google Home devices to LG AI-enabled TVs to send voice commands directly from their smart speakers. This feature will become available to customers in France, Germany, Japan and South Korea by the end of 2018. Compatibility with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices – currently available in the U.K. and the U.S. – will be expanded to Australia and Canada as well.”
LG will demonstrate the latest features at the IFA show in Berlin later this week.
