What you need to know
- LG says it has no plans to support pre-2019 TVs with either AirPlay 2 or HomeKit.
- That's despite previous assurances it would.
- Customers are understandably annoyed.
LG has told its customers it has no plans to support either AirPlay 2 or HomeKit in pre-2019 models of its smart TVs, much to the chagrin of users.
Back in April, LG was clear that support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit was indeed coming to pre-2019 models. From that report:
After initially saying that it would only bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to its 2019 TVs, LG has now changed its tune. According to a new report, LG will now be bringing some support to older 2018 devices, too.There's been an update to a support document, as spotted by MacRumors, that now suggests support for Apple's tech is coming to select models including the SK and UK LCD models. In the world of OLED, the B8 through Z9 TVs should be good to go, too.
As MacRumors notes, however, LG very quickly changed its tune, removing references to the tech within its support document. LG has since told customers that it has no plans to update its pre-2019 TVs with AirPlay 2 or HomeKit in a tweet to a customer:
Hi there, LG has no plans to update its pre-2019 TVs with Airplay2 or Homekit unfortunately. Apologies for the inconvenience caused!
https://twitter.com/LGUK/status/1298586491543859200
As you can imagine, customers are furious with the decision, one stating:
Your company should be ashamed. I'm pretty sure more than 22.000 customers will never buy another product from LG now that we know your products lifespan is well under 2 years. Especially considering you said you would update 2018 TVs on your website and now you erased it!
Another described the fiasco as a "very poor show" considering LG's earlier promised, stating it would be the last LG product they bought.
More than 21,000 customers signed a petition asking LG to improve the support, seemingly successfully given the news earlier this year. Those hopes have now been dashed and many LG TVs less than two years old left without basic AirPlay 2 and HomeKit functionality.
