Social messaging apps have been gaining in popularity worldwide, with users flocking to services like WeChat and WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family. Now South Korean manufacturer LG wants consumers to use a prominent messaging app, the Korean-owned, Japan-based Line, to communicate with another key figure in their lives: home appliances.
LG said yesterday that its newest “smart appliances,” including washing machines, robotic vacuums, and ovens, will be able to accept instructions—and respond—via Line, which has some 310 million international users.
That means consumers will ostensibly be able to message their refrigerator to tell it to go into power-saving mode, launch their LG robotic vacuum via Line, or even receive notifications when clothes washing cycles have been completed.
In a scenario LG depicts in an illustration, a user alerts several of his or her appliances, via Line, about an upcoming trip. The robot vacuum volunteers to clean up before the owner returns, while the washer says, “Have a nice trip” and the oven responds with, “I am going to miss you!” (Though it’s not shown as an actual Line message, the washer also supplies an obsequious “Yes master!”)
LG’s system is set to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. There’s no word yet, however, on whether or not the appliances will be able to process—or send—Line’s elaborate stickers.