Amazon Alexa support coming to LG's SmartThinQ hub
You'll be able to add calendar items and play music, but there's no smart home control yet.
When LG launched its SmartThinQ hub at CES this year, you couldn't help but notice that it was a dead ringer for Amazon's Echo but, well, dumber. That's because the device could play music and control LG SmartThinQ appliances, but wouldn't obey your voice commands like an Echo. However, LG has announced that that it will join Amazon rather than fighting it by adding support for the Echo's Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon recently opened Alexa up to third-party companies, but the SmartThinQ hub will get a limited set of features to start with, according to CNET. While it will listen to your commands, let you play music and schedule events on a calendar, it won't control lights, thermostats or other smart home devices like the Echo. That's a bit of an odd shortcoming, considering that the SmartThinQ hub is part of LG's SmartThinQ appliance family, so it's specifically designed for smart home devices. Hopefully we'll know more soon, but meanwhile, there's still no release date or pricing for the SmartThinQ hub.
