Lumio has launched Project Neo, a public beta feature for Vision TV users in India that lets people search for movies and shows by messaging WhatsApp or Instagram instead of wrestling with a remote. The pitch is simple: ask in plain language, get a title or recommendation back, and jump straight to the TV screen without opening yet another app.
That sounds small, but it taps into a familiar annoyance. TV search has lagged behind smartphone search for years, and streaming interfaces still love making easy things irritating. Lumio’s answer is to meet viewers where they already spend time, then use that habit to pull discovery back onto the television.
How Project Neo works in Lumio’s TLDR app
Project Neo lives inside Lumio’s TLDR app and supports searches in English, Hindi, and Hinglish. Users can look up a movie or series by title, actor, director, genre, language, mood or even a half-remembered plot, which is exactly the kind of fuzzy request that remote-based search handles badly. Neo can also suggest trending content across supported streaming platforms if you do not have a specific show in mind.
- Search by title, actor, director, genre, language, mood or storyline
- Works through WhatsApp and Instagram messages
- Supports English, Hindi and Hinglish
- Can surface trending content from supported streaming services
Instagram posts become TV searches
The Instagram side is the more interesting trick. If someone spots a Reel, poster, screenshot or post tied to a film or series, they can send it to Neo and let the system identify the content before pushing it to the connected Lumio Vision TV. That is a neat bridge between social discovery and living-room viewing, and it makes more sense than pretending people will abandon messaging apps just to browse a catalog.
Lumio is rolling out the feature as a public beta across India, with the company saying it will keep refining Neo based on feedback. That leaves room for the obvious next step: better recommendations, broader platform support, and fewer dead ends when the system is asked to identify something from a blurry screenshot. If Lumio gets that part right, the humble TV remote may become even more decorative than it already is.