LG, Amazon Partner Up On Smart Homes

Amazon, LG teaming up to bring smart-home tech to Alexa.

LG Electronics has announced a partnership with Amazon on smart-home technology, according to a Reuters report.

The partnership will allow the South Korean-based electronics company and the U.S.-based eCommerce giant to partner on enabling Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant to function with LG’s devices.

LG will enable Alexa to work with its own smart-home device, SmartThinQ Hub, to connect with home appliances over the internet and allow users to control the appliance through voice-recognition technology.

LG will also enable Amazon’s Dash on its SmartThinQ sensors so users can reorder items, such as laundry detergent, toilet paper or pet food.

“We will work with a wide range of partners to deliver differentiated smart-home solutions to customers,” Jo Seung-jin, who heads LG’s appliances business, said in a statement.

Smart-home tech is a growing business, with about 100 million households worldwide with some type of smart-home technology in 2015, and that number is expected to triple over the next 10 years to surpass 300 million households, according to a recent study by Deutsche Telekom.

Amazon announced in 2015 that it would open its Alexa personal assistant to everyone who wanted to develop apps to collaborate with the tech, allowing it to better compete with other virtual assistants, like Siri or Google Now.