LG’s first smart home hub has a built-in voice assistant.

After teasing that it was working on a smart home hub at CES 2024 back in January, LG has released more details about the device ahead of its official unveiling next week. The LG ThinQ ON home hub is Matter-compatible and supports connectivity via Wi-Fi and Thread, allowing you to control LG devices as well as some smart home devices from other manufacturers. The new smart home hub is more than just a box to connect to your devices, however. It’s also equipped with a speaker which lets you talk to the built-in AI voice assistant, control and monitor your devices via voice, and even play audio content.

The new smart home hub will be introduced at the IFA 2024 consumer and home electronics fair which runs from September 6-10 in Berlin.

The LG ThinQ ON has the potential to replace your Echo Dot

It doesn’t yet have the same level of compatibility, but it could be coming

Looking at the images of the LG ThinQ ON it’s hard not to be reminded of the earlier generations of the Echo Dot, before it changed to a more spherical design . It has a similar puck shape to the first- and second-generation Echo Dot, has a similar light ring around the device, and even has a similar color scheme to the Sandstone White model of the third-generation Echo Dot . This may not be a coincidence, as the device has the potential to be an Echo Dot killer, depending on its price.

That’s because just like the Echo Dot, the LG ThinQ ON doesn’t just connect to your smart home devices, it’s also a smart speaker , too. LG’s AI voice assistant is built into the device, allowing you to talk to the device, just like you do with Alexa. The big advantage that it has over the current version of Alexa, however, is that it harnesses the power of AI to allow you to have conversations that are likely to feel much more natural than talking to Alexa.

Currently, Alexa is all about individual requests; you have to use the “Alexa” wake word before each new thing you ask, and there is limited ability to reference context from previous commands. A new updated version of Alexa that uses the power of generative AI to make talking to Alexa feel more like a conversation is coming, but it appears that the LG ThinQ ON already has this in place.

One of the biggest selling points of Echo devices is that they make excellent low-cost smart home hubs. There are a huge number of devices from a wide range of brands that are compatible with Alexa, allowing you to control your smart home using your voice. If the LG ThinQ ON wants to truly compete, then it will need to offer a similar level of compatibility. Initially, that’s unlikely to be the case; currently it’s possible to connect a wide range of LG devices to the LG ThinQ app for smart home control, but there’s a limited number of devices from other manufacturers that are compatible. However, LG recently acquired the smart home company Athom , which produces a smart home hub that’s compatible with more than 50,000 devices from a wide variety of manufacturers. It’s unlikely to be the case that the LG ThinQ ON will support these devices at launch, but LG’s press release states that “LG plans to maximize the advantages of the ThinQ ON’s open platform by continuously expanding the range of supported brands and devices.”

The ThinQ ON also offers Thread connectivity , which isn’t available on the Echo Dot, although is found on more expensive Echo devices . If LG can add broad compatibility, then the ThinQ ON could genuinely be a rival to the Echo Dot. Jeff Bezos will no doubt be watching IFA 2024 with his breath held while waiting to hear what the price will be.

LG is using “Affectionate Intelligence” to make your smart home even smarter

The LG ThinQ ON will offer more than just passive control

LG

There are already plenty of smart home hubs out there, so did LG really need to make another one? The company clearly thinks so and seems to be aiming at creating something that is more user-friendly. Alongside other companies who have tried to reframe what the letters AI stand for by releasing software such as Apple Intelligence , the LG ThinQ ON will feature Affectionate Intelligence which is intended to harness AI in a responsible way. The focus is on AI that works in the service of its users while being caring, attentive, and secure.

Part of this focus is to work towards what LG calls the Zero Labor Home, but which in reality simply means making the smart home hub more active than passive. The ThinQ ON will learn usage patterns for your smart home devices in order to provide a more personalized experience and can automatically provide useful information such as telling you when your washer has finished a cycle, or if there’s a problem with one of your devices. This is getting closer to the true concept of smart home automation rather than simply smart home control. Being able to turn on your dishwasher with your voice or from a smart home display is ok, but having it automatically turn on because it knows that you always turn it on before you go to bed is far superior.