Voice assistants are becoming the norm. According to Statista.com, the number of digital voice assistants in the wild will rise to 8.4 billion in 2024. Currently, the number is estimated to be about 4.2 billion.
The two most widely recognized devices with a voice assistant; are smartphones and smart speakers. However, the use cases for both differ wildly. Smartphones are by definition more personal devices, and smart speakers are usually meant for anyone to use. Smartphones are meant to be taken wherever you go and smart speakers lie on the kitchen table or bedside table.
What does this difference mean?
The Difference in Use Cases
Smartphones are by default personal devices. They’re used for more than just calls and texts. People use them for social media, customized news feeds, for navigation, and to search nearby locations.
The use of voice assistants in smartphones is personal. Not only do we store private information in our smartphones, we often expect our phone calls to be private (even when using them in public places). And when we use the Voice Assistant in our smartphones, we expect it to know us. In fact, a study published in 2017 showed that 26% of smartphone users in the UK fantasized about their voice assistants. Remember the movie “Her”? It’s already happening.
That kind of relationship, though strange, is fathomable with a smartphone. It’s not possible with a smart speaker. By definition, smart speakers are meant for collective use. Not only will the Smart Speaker respond to anybody asking a question, we often want everyone to hear the Voice Assistant’s answer.
Mobile vs. Stationary Use
Smartphones are, by definition, mobile. They go everywhere. Smart Speakers, on the other hand, are generally placed in various rooms of the house. It’s convenient to request navigation assistance or restaurant ratings from a smartphone. And use our smart speakers to control IoT devices like turning on lights, controlling the TV, or playing music.
What are the Opportunities for Voice Assistants on Smartphones and Smart Speakers?
Device-Based Search
It’s popular to write about SEO and Voice Search. In the past, SEO was about ranking on “page-1”. But Voice Assistants have changed SEO, no longer is it enough to be in the top 10, because Voice Assistant users want the best answer, not a list of possible answers.
For website owners, the challenge is to create content that is concise and directly answers potential questions – and then hope the Voice Assistants choose your website as the best answer. Alternatively, website owners can integrate directly with a Voice Assistant by building a Voice App.
Specialized Apps
Voice Applications are popular on both Amazon and Google Voice Assistant platforms. Amazon calls Voice Applications, Skills. And Google calls them Actions. Amazon Alexa Skills and Google Assistant Actions are used in both smart speakers and smartphones. And as people continue to use Voice Assistants, Voice Applications will become as popular as websites. In fact, if you currently have a website, you should consider getting a Voice App to share your content.
Profiles
Smartphones are generally used by a single person, so the Voice Assistant can assume all requests come from the same user. But since smart speakers are shared, the Voice Assistant will get requests from different people. As voice recognition continues to improve, the Voice Assistant can provide responses tailored to the person making the request. Requests like “play my music”, should be specific to the person making the request.
The scope for voice assistant applications is expanding with the use of both smart speakers and smartphones. While they may serve different purposes, they will both make the use of voice tech more widespread.
