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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

ThinQ

SmartThinq-ing. LG Appliances to Work with Google and Alexa

In a Switzerland-like move of neutrality, LG announced today that its SmartThinq line of connected appliances will work with both Google Home Assistant and Alexa (hat tip to Digital Trends). This will allow users to control more than a hundred SmartThinq devices, including ranges, ovens and refrigerators, with their voice through Google Home or Amazon Echos.

LG had previously announced Alexa integration for its new line of Thinq smart refrigerators, and at the same time had stated its commitment to an Open Platform, Open Partnership philosophy, which included incorporating Google Assistant. Today’s announcement seems to make this openness official across all of LG’s SmartThinq devices.

This is a smart (pardon the pun) play for LG, as both Alexa and Google Home devices have been selling in the millions. By working with both Google and Alexa, LG can slide its smart home devices into whatever ecosystem people have chosen for themselves. Removing any barrier to adoption is good — especially when you are asking people to plunk down thousands of dollars for something like a smart fridge.

It’s also a contrast to Samsung, which has chosen to push its own smart assistant, Bixby, in its Family Hub fridges at the expense of working with outside voice services.

In the kitchen specifically, LG is creating a very open platform in a bid to capture early adopters. In addition to working with both Google and Alexa, LG announced at CES that it will work with both Innit and SideChef to provided guided cooking capabilities into its ovens and ranges.

Probably not so coincidentally, LG also announced its own Thinq Google Assistant Speaker today, giving LG its own entrant in the smart speaker market. And since it’s powered by Google, you can talk to it to control your other LG devices.

LG Integrates Innit and SideChef Guided Cooking At CES

LG, which showed off its ThinQ line of smart appliances at CES this week, announced it will integrate with SideChef and Innit guided cooking platforms, allowing them to operate LG appliances. So, when you’re following recipes from SideChef or Innit, those apps will talk to LG SmartThinQ ovens and ranges to automatically set heating temperatures, modes and cooking times.

SideChef and Innit are part of a wave of guided-cooking apps that use a combination of interactive elements such as timers, photos and video to help cooks of all levels prepare meals more easily. In partnering with LG, these guides now move off the screen and into the real world to do some of the actual work of cooking for you.

The guided cooking space heated up this week with with other major players making big announcements. Elsewhere at CES, Whirpool announced that its Yummly guided cooking app will be able to send instructions to its appliances. And over at the Kitchen and Bath Show in Orlando, Hestan announced that its guided cooking technology will move inside appliances, the first of which is a cooktop from a new residential line from Meyer called Hestan Indoor.

Notably absent from all the guided cooking news this week is Samsung. The company showed off its latest Family Hub fridge that could mirror your phone or Samsung TV, but there was no mention of any connections within a smarter kitchen.

Right now, the press announcement only mentions SideChef and Innit interacting with the hot side of cooking, though it’s easy to see that integration extending into the fridge. The new LG ThinQ refrigerator already recommends meals based on the food you already have. Presumably, SideChef and Innit will also get access to that same ingredient list, and customers could see a more valuable end-to-end solution by using their guided recipe app of choice.

And there is value in helping transform anyone into a decent cook by breaking down the silos between recipe and actual cooking. The instructions are no longer an inert list separate from the result, they are now actively involved in the result.

LG says it’s committed to an open strategy when it comes to creating the smart home. So you can expect more announcements like this to come out this year. Which is good, because partnerships like these also helps allay any fears of getting locked into an ecosystem when buying an expensive, connected appliance.

As these smart cooking platforms expand, partner up and open up, recipes talking to your appliances is something we’ll all be talking about.