When you walk into your house, what’s the first thing you usually do? Turn on the lights, check the air conditioner or heater to see if the temperature is a comfortable one, or maybe just go have a snack out of the fridge? Any one of these things can now be done from the comfort of your phone, no matter where you go if you’re using a smart connected appliance. LG has been a big player in the smart appliance realm, and has come out with some pretty interesting and downright cool things, like this NFC powered microwave oven. LG has an app for that oven specifically, and while they’d certainly prefer you to use said app on their newest phone, the LG G2, it thankfully works on any Android powered phone out there. Now LG is partnering up with popular messaging app LINE so that you can perform even the most menial of tasks remotely by simply chatting with your smart connected appliance. Yes, that means you’ll text your washing machine to start a load, and of course ask your thermostat if it’d kindly adjust the temperature in your house. While this no doubt sounds like a bit of a strange way of controlling your smart appliances, it’s still really cool.
LG has implemented HomeChat onto all of their 2014 model smart connected appliances, so if you’re in the market for a new appliance in the near future you might want to consider one of these puppies. For example you can text your refrigerator “I’m going on vacation” and the fridge will respond with “Should I convert to vacation mode?,” which puts the fridge in a power saving mode while you’re not using it. LG also has a robotic vacuum that can be talked to to tell it to clean at a certain time during the day, and you can even tell your washing machine to start a load the day you’re getting back so you’ll have fresh clothes to throw in the dryer when you get home. LG’s HOM-BOT vacuum will also tell you information like the last time it cleaned, what mode it was on when it cleaned, and also manually controlling its movements via HomeChat. While some of this stuff seems superfluous, it’s all rather cool, and will likely make a few things in your life just a little bit easier and more convenient.