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Apps Like LG ThinQ: Best Smart Home Control Alternatives

LG ThinQ is a sore spot for LG appliance and TV owners — broken remotes, connection drops, and a confusing UI dominate recent reviews. These smart home apps offer cleaner interfaces, more reliable device connectivity, and in many cases direct support for LG hardware without touching ThinQ's cloud.

Why People Look for LG ThinQ Alternatives

Remote control is broken for many users — 14 percent of reviews flag the TV and appliance remote as unreliable, with buttons that don't respond and features that silently stop working after updates. For a companion app, this is the core value prop failing.
Connectivity is the second-largest complaint — the app frequently loses connection to LG devices and has to be coaxed back into pairing. The problems get worse after firmware updates on either the phone or the appliance.
Overall functionality gets a 10-percent complaint rate — bugs, inconsistent behavior, and features that don't work as advertised. Review analysis names bugs as the primary churn reason.
The UI is described as confusing and outdated, and adding new devices is a multi-step gauntlet. Users coming from mainstream smart-home apps like SmartThings describe the experience as a step backward.

6 Best Alternatives to LG ThinQ

Each app below addresses a specific gap in LG ThinQ's offering. We picked them based on real user review patterns and feature differentiation.

Samsung SmartThings

Samsung's universal smart home hub with Matter and Thread support

SmartThings has 4.6 million ratings, a 4.6 average, and broad support for LG appliances and TVs via Matter or direct integrations. The interface is dramatically more pleasant than ThinQ's, the automation engine is more powerful, and connectivity is significantly more stable. For users with mixed-brand smart homes, SmartThings is the strongest universal pick.

Users who want a polished hub that works with LG and many other brands Free
Explore Samsung SmartThings data →

Apple Home

Apple's HomeKit and Matter control center, built into iOS

Apple Home is the strongest choice for iPhone users with LG appliances that support Matter or HomeKit. Local processing means automations run without cloud latency, and Apple's privacy posture is far stronger than LG's. The catch: older LG appliances don't support Matter and can't be added directly.

iPhone users who want native Matter support for smart appliances Free (built into iOS)
Explore Apple Home data →

Google Home

Google's unified home app with broad device support

Google Home supports LG appliances that expose Google Assistant integrations. The app is cleaner than ThinQ, Google Assistant voice control is best-in-class, and the recent redesign prioritizes reliability over feature bloat. A solid pick for Android users who want voice control and mainstream reliability.

Android users who want voice-first control via Google Assistant Free
Explore Google Home data →

Home Assistant

The open-source home automation platform for privacy-minded users

Home Assistant has a dedicated LG ThinQ integration that lets you control LG appliances and TVs locally without going through LG's cloud. The learning curve is real, but the payoff is complete local control, no LG cloud dependence, and automations that don't break when the ThinQ app breaks.

Technical users who want total local control and no cloud dependency Free (self-hosted) / Home Assistant Cloud $6.50/month
Explore Home Assistant data →

Amazon Alexa

Amazon's voice-first smart home hub

The Alexa app supports LG via LG ThinQ skill integrations and offers voice-first control of compatible appliances and TVs. The app is reasonably stable and provides a viable alternative if your main use case is "turn off the TV" or "preheat the oven" without pulling out the ThinQ app.

Users with Echo devices who want voice-controlled LG appliances Free
Explore Amazon Alexa data →

SmartHQ

GE Appliances' universal kitchen and laundry app

SmartHQ is the direct competitor at the appliance-company level — it runs GE, Profile, Café, Monogram, Fisher & Paykel, and Haier appliances through one app. If your LG ThinQ frustration runs deep enough to consider swapping brands when appliances fail, SmartHQ is a noticeably cleaner experience from a comparable manufacturer.

Users switching from LG to GE/Haier appliances specifically Free
Explore SmartHQ data →
How we found these alternatives

We found these alternatives by analyzing review patterns across smart home and lifestyle apps. The most common reasons users leave LG ThinQ are broken remote control functionality, persistent bugs, and poor UX. Each alternative below addresses at least one of those friction points directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

The top reported issues are remote control failures (14 percent of reviews), connectivity drops (7 percent), and post-update crashes. LG's app development has not kept pace with competing smart-home platforms, and the cloud backend is known for inconsistent uptime. Many users keep ThinQ installed only for initial setup, then use SmartThings or Apple Home for day-to-day control.

Yes — many newer LG appliances support Matter, which works with SmartThings, Apple Home, Google Home, and Home Assistant. Older LG appliances may still require ThinQ for initial pairing, but day-to-day control can often be handed off to another hub. Home Assistant has a dedicated ThinQ integration for local control.

Yes. Both the LG TV Remote app (separate from ThinQ, published by LG) and third-party apps like AnyMote support LG webOS TVs and are typically more reliable than ThinQ's built-in remote. On iPhone, the Apple Home app can also control newer LG TVs via HomeKit integration.

App Vulture uses AI-powered review intelligence to analyze what real users say about apps — their pain points, feature requests, and reasons for switching. We identified these alternatives by analyzing review patterns across smart home and lifestyle apps and validated each candidate against the source app's most common churn reasons.

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