LG and Samsung say their smart home apps will soon be able to control each other's appliances and TVs, as part of the Home Connectivity Alliance formed in 2021
The smart home is all about interoperability these days. First came Matter, making Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung play nice …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is an early application-level interoperability move alongside the standards push around Matter, which had already drawn broad vendor support at CES. Matter’s expanding backing addressed device compatibility, while the Home Connectivity Alliance extends the practical question to which app can manage which household products.
The later decision by Apple, Google, and Samsung to accept Matter certification across their “Works With” programs shows the same direction of travel: reducing fragmented compatibility claims across major smart-home ecosystems.
First-order effects
- LG and Samsung customers will be able to use either company’s smart-home app to control the other’s supported appliances and TVs, reducing the need to switch apps in mixed-brand homes.
- LG and Samsung must make their respective control platforms and supported product functions work across the alliance boundary, rather than treating app access as exclusive to their own hardware.
Second-order effects
- Cross-brand control raises the competitive bar for appliance and TV vendors whose platforms remain isolated; buyers can place more weight on product features and price when basic control is less tied to one brand.
- Platform operators such as Amazon, Apple, and Google face a more credible appliance-industry interoperability layer, even as Matter provides a separate common-device standard.
Third-order effects
- If cross-platform control becomes routine, the smart-home moat shifts from locking customers into a single app toward the quality of automation, integrations, and service experience built on interoperable devices.
- The likely structural direction is toward certification and alliance-led compatibility as a purchasing signal, with vendors competing to retain visibility and customer relationships inside shared control environments.
The trend: Smart-home competition is moving from closed device ecosystems toward interoperable control layers, making software experience rather than exclusive compatibility the more durable differentiator.