- LG's new TV has a simplified user interface
- LG Buddy for help from friends and family
- The remote has a larger font, and can be an emergency alarm
LG has launched a brand new TV designed for a very specific demographic: seniors. The new Easy TV is launching in Korea first, but LG intends to bring it to other countries with "rapidly aging demographics, including the United States and Japan."
There's a bit of a running joke online about visiting older family members and having to sort out their smart TVs, but like many jokes there's a grain of truth to it: smart TV software often isn't very straightforward. Like many people with elderly loved ones, I've cursed the overly complex interfaces, controls and menus on even the best TVs, so I'm very much here for what LG's doing.
And let's face it, smart TVs can be overly complex even when you're relatively young. I'm not quite the target demographic here – although I'm very much in my "taking my glasses off to read my phone" era – but I still had to summon my 12-year-old the other day to find out which buried menu setting would let me hook up my AirPods to my Samsung set.
So what's LG doing to make its smart TVs a smarter buy for seniors?
LG Easy TV: key features for older viewers
The Easy TV comes with a tweaked version of the webOS system with simpler navigation and a larger font, and you can use its Live Alert voice commands to set up reminders for things like taking your daily meds. There's a new remote with a brighter backlight and bigger buttons, including a big help button.
That button summons LG Buddy, which enables friends, relatives or carers to take control of the TV remotely to adjust the settings, change the inputs or schedule programming. It also enables voice and video calls – the latter via the TV's built-in camera – and exchanging photos and YouTube videos.
The help button can also be used to summon help in emergency situations where the person can't make a phone call, such as falls: pressing the help button three times or holding it down will alert the designated contact. LG reportedly plans to bring this feature to other TVs, not just the Easy TV.
Looking at the remote, I'd have liked an even simpler one – something more like the Apple TV 4K or current Fire TV remote scaled up a bit – but compared to the other LG remotes I've used, it's definitely a big improvement.
It's easy to make jokes about our loved ones and their too-loud TVs with motion smoothing set to the max, but today's tech can really help people: dialogue enhancement can make programs easier to hear, visual adjustments can make shows and movies easier to see, and voice agents and intelligent assistants can make our devices much easier to control.
And without getting too morbid about it, the best case scenario for all of us is that we'll live to enjoy those accessibility features ourselves. So here's hoping more firms do what LG's doing – or perhaps a simplified version of the interface could become an option on every TV…
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