Amazon Alexa support comes to third-party webOS TVs

LG has started licensing its webOS platform to partners and the latest update brings Amazon Alexa support to third-party webOS TVs.

Alexa, meet Xianyou
In addition to LG TVs, webOS is now powering TVs from Advance, Ayonz, Blaupunkt, Dualshine, Eko, JSW, Konka, Manta, Polaroid, RCA, Seiki, Silicon Player, Skytech, Skyworth, and Xianyou.

With an update rolling out to the various TVs this quarter, Amazon Alexa voice capabilities will be added to allow the user to say things like "Alexa, open YouTube" or "Alexa, suggest comedy movies" into the remote.



- "The addition of Amazon Alexa to the long list of webOS features will enhance the user experience and boost the value of our growing smart TV ecosystem," said Jung Sung-hyun, head of content services at LG HE. "Bringing together the capabilities of Alexa with the convenience of webOS to third-party TVs is a win-win-win for TV brands, customers and developers."

However, the update also highlights the fact that LG is supplying partners with a different, less-capable version of webOS than the one used in its own TVs. LG 2021 TVs run webOS 6.0 whereas 'powered by webOS' TVs run a scaled-down version of webOS 5.0 from 2020.

LG said that the update will roll out first in North America first followed by other regions including Europe and Asia.