It's now OK to chat to your washing machine, thanks to LG

Do you ever find yourself getting annoyed at your home appliances and start calmly talking to them to try getting them to work properly? Thanks to LG, you can now actually communicate with your fridge, washing machine, microwave and oven with a new HomeChat service.

Yes, this does sound like a bizarre idea, but, hold on, as it could actually be useful.

Initially available in Korea only, LG’s fridge has a camera that can send photos of its contents back to you so you know what items you need to buy when you’re out shopping. The washing machine can be remotely activated, via a chat message, so that loads are finished before you get home from work, while the microwave/oven includes recipe suggestions, and will tell you what ingredients are necessary for specific dishes – not to mention that it will auto-select the appropriate settings.

In each case, the appliance is activated and controlled using chat sessions on the messaging app, Line. The chat service includes a Quick Button that pulls up commonly-used features for each appliance, and there are three different modes to help you use your appliances while you are on holiday, away, or returning home.

Is this a case of much-needed technology or just a way of making us even more reliant and lazy? We won’t know until LG releases these chatty appliances to the UK, but there’s no time frame for when that might happen.