To solve this epidemic, Lumio, the homegrown consumer technology startup from Circuit House Technologies, has developed a fascinating software-led alternative called Project Neo. The big pitch? Letting you discover and launch content on the big screen using some of the most common apps you already spend hours on — Instagram and WhatsApp.
Gadgets 360 had early access to the feature, and I spent the last few days testing Project Neo, hooked up to the Xiaomi TV S Mini LED (review), to see if it can really bridge the smartphone-to-TV gap.
No New App to Learn
Getting Project Neo up and running is incredibly simple and surprisingly seamless. It wasn’t about what it could do, but more about what it didn’t ask me to do. There was no new app to install on my phone. No chatbot that I had to struggle to have conversations with. There aren’t any complex account registrations or tedious username logins, either.
Instead, Neo lives inside the TLDR app that ships with Lumio Vision TVs and Arc Projectors. It works with WhatsApp and Instagram, two apps that probably account for most of my screen time outside work anyway.
Getting started takes only a couple of minutes. While the feature is exclusive to Lumio devices, the company provided us with an APK file for the app and a how-to guide for installation. Once done, I scanned a QR code displayed during onboarding, which linked my WhatsApp account to the TV. Then, my TV immediately appeared as an available Neo device.
Those who want to tie in their social media discovery habits can also type a simple /help command inside the chat. This sends a direct automated hyperlink to link your Instagram handle as well.
From that point onwards, I rarely touched the TV remote.
What’s worth noting is that the feature is still in beta. While such software usually comes with rough edges, the experience felt surprisingly polished. There were clear instructions explaining what Neo could do, supported languages, and even examples for first-time users.
Searching Feels Natural
With the setup out of the way, I spent days trying to aggressively trip up the conversational search bot to see its true limitations. The obvious use case is searching for a movie. Instead of painstakingly typing with an on-screen keyboard, I simply sent WhatsApp messages such as:
“Suggest a suspense-thriller show that has less than 10 episodes.”
“Show me something like Coherence, but a film that is easier to understand”
“Find street racing films that are like the Fast and the Furious franchise.”
On most occasions, Neo understood what I meant. What’s extremely impressive is that, unlike conventional TV search, it doesn’t expect exact titles, but actually understands intent.
Photo Credit: Lumio
To further test out its limits, I put in a vague query, which was “I don’t want to think today. Just recommend something funny and light-hearted.”
Within seconds, recommendations appeared on the television through TLDR, complete with streaming availability.
The text recognition also holds its weight when you throw specific directors, actors, genres, or half-remembered plots at it. I deliberately tried vague prompts just to push the envelope further. Some of these included queries like:
“Movie where the world ends, and people jump on arks to save themselves”
“That Tom Cruise movie where he is a young hotshot lawyer.”
Both worked.
Considering this is a public beta, Project Neo feels unexpectedly stable. Responses usually arrived within a few seconds, and recommendations appear on the TV quickly, too. Navigation inside the TLDR app is also fluid.
The experience wasn’t perfect every single time, though. There were instances in which Neo misunderstood broader requests. For example, asking for “comfort movies” produced a mixed selection spanning several genres instead of the feel-good films I expected. On another occasion, a couple of actor-based recommendations surfaced unrelated content. However, it worked well enough that I stopped worrying whether I was phrasing my requests correctly, something that has plagued my experience on most TVs running Google Assistant to date.
Voice messaging was another feature I used more than usual during my traditional binge-watching experience. Instead of typing long prompts, I held down the microphone button in WhatsApp and spoke naturally.
For example, I asked it to “recommend me a light-hearted movie that I can finish during a 30-minute lunch break.”
Neo understood the request without any further clarification, and the experience rarely feels awkward since we’re already accustomed to voice notes on WhatsApp. This is also, perhaps, one of Project Neo’s biggest strengths. You can actually converse with it rather than search.
Smart Integrations With Instagram
The Instagram integration in Project Neo is, in my opinion, a masterstroke. I have been in scenarios where I’m doomscrolling through my Instagram feed and come across a viral film trailer or a snippet of a really interesting show. Previously, I saved the post or Reel and forgot about it by evening when I finally sat down in front of the TV.
Enter Project Neo, where you can share a Reel, a movie poster post, or a quick screenshot directly with the TLDR account on Instagram. I forwarded a trending fan-made reel of a Norwegian show to the chat. Within a few seconds, the TV recognised the title and surfaced it inside the TLDR app.
The game-changer was that it not only displayed the exact title with details about the case, but also the streaming platforms where it would be available. The same worked with movie posters and screenshots, even when they were cropped. The experience is so fluid that it almost entirely eliminates the need for remote typing and manual searching.
Project Neo: Initial Thoughts
Lumio says Project Neo is still in beta, and there have been a couple of instances where I have felt that. If you do decide to try it out, then there might be some recommendations that occasionally miss the mark; slightly vague prompts could deliver inconsistent results. However, none of those overshadows the central idea.
While companies have previously promised AI as the ‘solve-it-all’ technology, very little has changed fundamentally so far. Lumio’s approach, however, solves an actual problem rather than adding AI for the sake of a marketing headline or just to make up sales numbers. It is a smart and practical software implementation that is genuinely relevant to how modern users want to interact with their TVs, letting you interact through the messaging interfaces you already use all day long.
In the last few weeks of using it, I found myself reaching for WhatsApp on my phone instead of the TV remote more often than I expected. And that’s probably the biggest compliment I can give Project Neo.
