The rise of the ubiquitous voice assistant - 0 views
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Cécile Christodoulou on 29 Mar 19"-Smart speakers are not broadly useful-most users only use them for a few things-music, timers, alarms, and, in some cases, home automation scenarios. - Voice-only situations are limiting in cases where a visual or hybrid mode is required - media, entertainment, shopping, etc. - Engagement levels with third-party skills are very low (skills offer limited functionality and skills syntax is hard to remember). "I'm sorry, I don't know that" and other Alexa failures are no longer entertaining, but rather frustrating. Even Amazon acknowledges this [https://www.tomsguide.com/us/amazon-alexa-kills-skills,news-28072.html] - Smart speakers are NOT ubiquitous-the speaker on my kitchen counter is not in my car nor in my office!" "Apps - do we need to reinvent the wheel?" "Most people already have their banking, communications, social networking, navigation, travel and payment apps in their smartphones. They already know how to use them (simple). They already know which ones to use for what purpose-Slack for work, WhatsApp for friends, Messenger for family (user choice). They've already registered and set them up and they provide control over what information goes where-for instance, their portfolio may be in their banking app, their contacts are on the phone. They know which app sees what data (privacy). They also trust apps to protect them and their data. Imagine a voice assistant platform that just allows users to use the apps they already use-on-the-go - anytime, anywhere-with simple voice commands, without having to register these service relationships again, and without waiting for the developers to have to reinvent the wheel to plug into the platform. We must embrace mobile app actions as first-class citizens. We should be able to do things in our mobile apps with simple voice commands. We must provide user choice and personalize user experience without registration and without compromising privacy and trust."