LG's new TVs will support Apple's AirPlay 2 and HomeKit

[Alex]

There’s a trend here. After Samsung and Vizio, LG is also adding support for Apple’s ecosystem to its TV operating system webOS. Specifically, people who buy an LG  TV in 2019 should be able to share content to their TVs using AirPlay 2. TVs will also be compatible with HomeKit, letting you create custom scenarios and control your TV using Siri.

“Many of our customers may also happen to have Apple  devices,” Senior Director of Home Entertainment Product Marketing Tim Alessi said during the company’s CES press conference. “LG has been working with Apple as well to create a streamlined user experience. So I’m very pleased to announce today that we’re adding Apple AirPlay to our 2019 TVs.”

If you have an iPhone, iPad or Mac, you can send video content to your TV using the AirPlay icon in your favorite video app. You can also mirror your display in case you want to show some non-video content.

2019 LG TVs also support AirPlay audio, which means that you can send music and podcasts on your TV, pair your TV with other AirPlay 2-compatible speakers.

New LG TVs also support HomeKit. It means that you can add your TV to the Home app on your iOS device and Mac. After that, you can control basic TV features from the Home app. You can also assign Siri keywords so that you can manage your TV using Siri on your iOS device or HomePod.

HomeKit support lets you create custom actions. For instance, you can say “Hey Siri, turn on the TV” and have Siri turn on the TV and dim your Philips Hue lights.

Unlike Samsung, LG didn’t announce an iTunes app. So you can’t rent or buy movies and TV shows straight from your TV. Buying something from your phone and then using AirPlay is still a bit clunky.

LG also said that 2019 TVs come with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support. But this is less surprising as you can find hundreds of devices that support those voice assistants.

Finally, the company is adding a home dashboard to control a wide variety of home devices from your TV. Details are still thin on this feature. It’s unclear whether LG will roll out some of all of these software features to old TVs.

Watching all TV manufacturers add AirPlay and HomeKit support one by one reminds me of the year TV manufacturers all announced native Netflix apps for their TV. It’s clear that Apple is following in Netflix’s footsteps and opening up. Apple has been working on a subscription-based streaming service for months. And the company wants to support as many devices as possible.

CES 2019 LG Press Conference

 

[m11rphy]

What about us with 2018 LG OLEDs? Both Samsung and Vizio have said they will release an update to their 2018 models 

[Sly Solo]

Hi, don’t get me wrong, I like Lg stuff. The thing I hate though is when corp decision are to make obsolete previous, expensive and premium devices, in my case an oled65b7 that I paid 3k$ a year ago. Last week CES show, Samsung and other brands stand for airplay 2 on 2016,17 and 18 backward. I would not renew this tv for a lack of support, but come on, when time will come  adding or for renew, beleave me I will remember this. Please reconsider this short strategy view. I might not be the only one: 

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[George Hofmeister]

21 hours ago, Sly Solo said:

Hi, don’t get me wrong, I like Lg stuff. The thing I hate though is when corp decision are to make obsolete previous, expensive and premium devices, in my case an oled65b7 that I paid 3k$ a year ago. Last week CES show, Samsung and other brands stand for airplay 2 on 2016,17 and 18 backward. I would not renew this tv for a lack of support, but come on, when time will come  adding or for renew, beleave me I will remember this. Please reconsider this short strategy view. I might not be the only one: 

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As the owner of a 2016 LG TV I will quite happily sign the petition if you can show me proof that the previous generations of TVs will actually be capable of doing the job.  Just saying it can be added via a firmware update does not make it true that the hardware can actually do the job.

[Sly Solo]

Lg should answer this question.  Why not if other brands will.

[m11rphy]

9 minutes ago, Sly Solo said:

Lg should answer this question.  Why not if other brands will.

LG won’t answer the question, they will ignore and hope it goes away the same as with all the twitter posts they won’t respond to. I’m on my 3rd LG OLED and truly beloved they were a better company than Samsung. Turns out I was wrong, safe to say my C8 will be my last LG 

[tfeltner84]

Yea they would add to newer tvs and not ones from 2017 and 2018 because they want us to buy another tv when we just bought one and to find out the expensive 800 tv u just bought doesnt even allow u to add hbo or do other things like most tvs already do but LG figured they would make people spend alot of money on a tv that cant do what they want then instead of adding it to an update for all tvs they only add to the new so people would have to buy another tv but unfortunately alot of us single disabled parents cant afford to buy Multiple tvs. Yall need to update all the newer tvs from 2017 till now and actually make them do what they claim. If i knew this tv wouldn't do most things i needed u wouldn't have bought it but no they advertise lies to sell their products   .. time to throw away lg and go back to an android tv so i can get the options i actually need 

[scoutstan]

I purchased my OLED 65C8 as "new" in April 2019, hard to believe LG will not update for  AirPlay2 capability.

[El Trochita]

Interesting to note the date on this announcement, which indicates that support for apple mirroring in WebOS is only about a year old.  This may explain why connecting an iPhone to a latest-model LGTV (running latest s/w) is a bit hit and miss - and why there are no diagnostics on the TV to control the process (eg whether the TV has received any kind of signal from the phone).  Problems include: sometimes phone just hangs and nothing happens;  sometimes it shows as connecting but doesn't connect; TV volume goes up to 99 after connecting or disconnecting. I have been given a tip by (v helpful) LG support to use wifi only and not LAN cable.