Amazon recently opened Alexa up to third-party companies, but the SmartThinQ hub will get a limited set of features to start with, according to CNET. While it will listen to your commands, let you play music and schedule events on a calendar, it won't control lights, thermostats or other smart home devices like the Echo. That's a bit of an odd shortcoming, considering that the SmartThinQ hub is part of LG's SmartThinQ appliance family, so it's specifically designed for smart home devices. Hopefully we'll know more soon, but meanwhile, there's still no release date or pricing for the SmartThinQ hub.