William Gallagher
Despite a previous published commitment to bringing both AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to selected 2018 TV models, LG now says that it has no plans to do so.
Despite recently bringing the Apple TV app to selected 2018 television sets, LG has now reversed its decision about supporting HomeKit and AirPlay 2 on those models.
Previously, LG committed to adding support to smart TV models including its "SK" and "UK" LED sets, plus the "B8" through "Z8" OLED ones. The support was due to come by October 2020, but now a support representative has told a user that no such support is coming at all.
Hi there, LG has no plans to update its pre-2019 TVs with Airplay2 or Homekit unfortunately. Apologies for the inconvenience caused!
— LG UK (@LGUK) August 26, 2020
As spotted by MacRumors, this tweet dates from a week ago but is now being followed by complaints from owners of 2018 TV sets as the information spreads.
Reportedly, the initial promise on LG's website was accompanied by references within support documents. However, those were allegedly removed shortly afterwards.
LG made no public announcement about reneging on the HomeKit or AirPlay 2 support and as yet has not commented beyond its one tweeted response.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
18 Comments
Glad I didn’t buy one of these sets. My bedroom TV (older LG) died in late 2018 and the (reportedly) upgradable models seemed very appealing.
Not surprising. The processor/OS aspect of smart TVs is mainly a marketing ploy. The processors don't really change that much in terms of spec and the lack of software updates isn't due to lack of capability in older models. It's just a management decision based on their sales strategy for new models.
I'm reneging on buying an LG TV from 2020 onwards.
If LG had promised these features to potential buyers and they are now dropping them then LG is probably going to be hit with a class action lawsuit.
I have a Samsung Smart TV that began losing features it shipped with!
A ton of them. There was a point when every time I turned it on I got a message saying this or that feature would be withdrawn and the date of service termination.
One of them was effectively DLNA!
No more Samsungs for me.
I much prefer a dumb screen and plug the box of my choice into it.