Print

• How many smart speakers do people have in a household? Sixty-seven percent said one, 22% two, and 11% three or more. • Seventy-two percent own Amazon Alexa but not Google Home, 17% own Google Home but not Alexa, and 11% own both. As the prices come down, people will likely continue to have more than one of these devices at home, sometimes from multiple plat- forms. Echo Dot and Google Home Mini are usually priced at $49, and they sometimes go on sale for $10 or $20 off. These low-cost devices have the same capabilities as the full-sized products, with- out a high-quality speaker built in. (You can use them with external speakers.) Other inexpensive options are appearing, like the Eufy Genie Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa for $35.75 With prices like these, people can put one in every room. It seems likely that voice computing will continue to grow at a rapid pace. Advantages of Voice Computing While voice computing is not appropriate for all situations, for cer- tain ones it’s very useful. Think of times when your hands are busy, wet, or dirty. And think of how much faster it is to talk than to type. There are studies showingthattalking to a mobile device can be three times faster than typing.76 Voice computing can be more practical and safer than typing in many situations, like during food prepara- tion, taking care of infants and young children, and while driving. Voicecomputing is also more intuitive because everyone knows how to talk. You don’t need to learn a system of menus or commands you can just ask for something. When a voice assistant replies, the tone of voice can convey information that words on a screen can’t easily do. For example, when you ask Google Home for a joke, it raises its voice and says, “This might make you laugh,” and proceeds to tell the joke in a happy, somewhat silly tone of voice. Not every situation is best served by voice, though. Designers like Cathy Pearl advise app developers to consider whether a voice interface makes sense for their particular task, rather than jumping on the bandwagon because voice computing is trendy. She advises against voice for situations where talking would be disruptive, like in open-plan offices.77 Some people just don’t feel comfortable What Is Voice-First Computing? 15