Google Assistant - Will everyone eventually use it? Fad?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have two google assistants in my home. I like it. I wonder if their popularity will continue to grow?

Some people may buy an assistant and not really have a use for it, but I make use of mine. First I have many/most of our lights on wifi. So I can control them by voice command, separately, or in groups. Turning off bedroom lights from bed is nice. (I know the clapper can also do that). Most of the lights are color, so I can set scenes of white for every day, and color for entertaining and special events. We have a dinner club event coming up themed Heaven and Hell, so I can do some fun things with the lights.

Other tasks I use a fair bit are setting timers when cooking, weather forecasts, and setting alarms for the next day, which can also be shut off easily, also without getting out of bed, lol.

When I watch Netflix I can pause, fast forward, rewind, change volume, change shows, without having to find the remote. I can also cast google music to any device I wish to play it on.

So I have had fun with it. Amazon Echo is similar, and probably just as good. When I got a second google assistant, I realized I could also use it as an intercom. We have a two story house, and sending a message over the speakers is a bit nicer than yelling. I can also send a message anytime I am away from home.

I want a third assistant, so we have each floor covered. I want that one to have a screen built into it so it can also display information as well as speak it.

So how is it different than a computer or tablet? It is always on and always listening, and has very sensitive microphones to pick up a voice from a far way off. I do not have to find it and turn it on before I can ask it a question. If other devices were on all the time and listening, without being woken up first, maybe I wouldn’t want it anymore.

What do you think? Is the future here, or is it a fad?

2

I remember reading Bill Gates’ The Road Ahead when I was a teenager, in 1996 or so, and the thing that stuck out to me the most was his voice-activated automated home. I got my Echo 20 years after that but the first thing I thought was “man, I’m livin’ like Bill Gates now!” And Echo isn’t even as swanky as Gates’ home automation (I believe it is very predictive, setting on lights and music as you move through rooms and stuff) but still I call out a song and there it is. Woohoo! I don’t even have lighting set up on it and I’m still impressed.

I think this is the next big thing, yes. Especially because it is not age- or content- restrictive. My 68 year old dad loves his little Echo Dot as much as his 6 year old granddaughter.

Problem is there are a ton of platforms (the base language used to code the commands and to serve the commands and to interpret the commands) and a ton of devices to be controlled and now with Google and Amazon (and who knows who else) there’s multiple places to start. The good news is competition the bad news is chaos.

3

They’re cheap (my dot was $30 new), easy to use and versatile. After the initial set up, they’d also be great for people who have trouble using a tablet or phone, either due to vision problems, limited motor skills etc. I think they’ll gain popularity. My home isn’t automated, but I use mine to set timers and reminders, play music, make grocery lists, and to look up forecasts and random facts. I could do all of this with my phone, or worse, use a pen and notepad but this is more convenient. It’s more fun, too. As I said in another thread, my Echo is sort of like my Ziggy from Quantum Leap.

4

Google Assistant - Will everyone eventually use it? Fad?

this device and others like it, I don’t see as a fad. Will everyone eventually use it? Yeah, sure given enough time. But right now there are enough people like me, who don’t really see a use for it in MY home, or are just resistant to it all for whatever reason, to prevent 100% household dependence on them. I probably wouldn’t use it even if someone gave one to me for free.

5

It will be a LONG time before I get one, and will basically require that something I strongly desire to do cannot be done without it.

But I assume I will be the exception.

6

I reckon that voice assistants will be the next thing to get built into TVs - so they won’t be a thing that people decide to buy any more (although they may not choose to use).

7

All of my family as them, but as yet I’ve seen no pressing need to have them in my apartment.

8

I don’t trust devices like that not to spy on me, so I’m averse to them.

Which is odd, because I’m an utterly uninteresting person who nobody would find even slightly interesting. (And both Google and Amazon already know everything about me anyway.)

9

I love them. The problem I’m having is I keep getting my devices names confused. The other day I’m in my car as I try to activate my phone:

Me: “Alexa…”

Phone: [no response]

Me: ALEXA!!

Phone: [no response]

Me: ALEXA!!

Phone: [no response]

Me: oops, “Ok Google”

Phone: [dings]:smack:

10

“Alexa, We’re Still Trying to Figure Out What to Do With You”

The story is about digital assistants in general, not just Alexa.

At this point, I’d say it’s yet to be determined how big an impact they’ll have for most people. The current systems might be the next big thing…or go the way of 3D TV and Google Glass. There’s been a big push with very cheap prices but a lot of people aren’t using them for very much. Since they are proprietary systems and new, waiting means losing for the company that doesn’t invest in the market early. That big push doesn’t mean success for the overall concept, though.

11

I have the ability to use them on my devices. I don’t, because I find them entirely useless. My dad uses it to ask it about the weather: I can get the weather app up faster than he gets a reply, but he gets a kick out of it, so I let him do it. I think it’s the Star Trek fantasy thing. (I also think I might get him some of those devices that you screw into a bulb and can then use an assistant to turn them on and off. Just for fun.)

I see what people do with them in the ads, and my thoughts are always “why would I do that?” I’m not making purchases by voice. I need to do a lot of searching before buying anything online. I don’t listen to music much. I don’t ask questions that can be quickly answered. If I need a timer, I’m already near a dedicated timing device. I don’t want a device reading anything out loud to me.

Nothing they do seems worth even the slight unease I’d feel with them always listening, or listening to a robot voice say stuff to me. The prices aren’t actually all that cheap: you can get a phone for the price of any assistant out there. And yet that already feels cheap enough that I worry about security problems. They are a part of the “Internet of Things” category, after all.

Or, you know, having people on TV trolling you by affecting your device, something that has happened too often for comfort. If I did use them, it would be a button on my phone or possibly a smart watch. You know, something I always have with me.

12

We have two Echos. We have some lights, thermostat, outlets connected. We use it for an intercom, controlling lights in the family room, turning on/off Christmas tree lights (currently just a generic lamp in another room), adding items as we think of them to shopping lists, warming a room up if we are cold, ordering pizza, listening to music, playing Jeopardy, set timers and reminders, and often just trying to see if we can get a funny response. Our lights can do color, but it really isn’t very useful for us. We used it a bit during the holidays, but normally it is only changing from bright white to soft. We do have a setting though that I set up for “watching TV” which is nice (some dim, others turn off). It is nice to just walk into a room and say “Alexa Turn on lights” and four turn on at once. I’m pretty sure this will be the norm soon. Same when leaving the room. I plan to do the lights in the basement entertainment area as I think the colors will be more fun there, but it will be about a $600 investment… I may have to sneak the bulbs in one at a time.

My biggest problem is I keep catching myself thanking it :slight_smile:

13

A family for whom I petsit got Amazon Echo a few years ago. When I’m there, I ask Alexa to play music or tell me a joke or story. That kind of thing, just to keep me company. The family probably do a lot more with her. especially now that they have several Dots, too.

While I like it while I’m there, I have no interest in having one at home. Just not my thing.

14

FYI, the owners have an app on their phone that logs a history of everything it’s been asked. So don’t ask it anything that would embarrass you. :slight_smile:

15

no

16

The police are finding them useful – they can get a warrant to search what was said within the hearing of that device. Can be real helpful in gathering evidence against criminals.

I can foresee lots of similar uses in the future:

  • your ex-wife’s lawyer subpoenas it for use in the divorce proceeding.
  • your auto insurance company subpoenas* it for the day of an accident, to see if what you told your spouse when you got home is the same story you told their agent.
  • in the IRS Audit, the auditor subpoenas the conversation you & your spouse had the day you were preparing the tax return.

*Or more likely, in the fine print in their insurance policy you agreed to provide this when they ask. We’re already seeing auto insurance companies examining the records in the ‘black box’ being built into modern cars, to verify the facts.

17

I could see it being useful for grocery shopping - Amazon Prime Now prices for grocery items are exactly the same as they are in the supermarket (the picking and fulfilment in my area is done by Morrison’s - one of the UK’s supermarket chains)

I don’t have an Echo, but I have used Prime Now a fair bit - so I could imagine there would be times when I would prefer to sit and do my own thing whilst telling Alexa to order potatoes, sliced bread, long life milk, cheese, etc based on my previous choices.

I wouldn’t trust it to select a new laptop or camera for me; for that, I’d still want to search myself, but for £30 of food shopping - the worst case (something like - I get the wrong kind of apples) is pretty tolerable.

18

Yeah, gonna need a cite for that. Echoes don’t work like that from what I’ve read.

19

Yeah, they only log/record what you say after the “magic words” you use to invoke them. It’s not like every one of these devices is storing infinite recordings of everyone’s living room. How would that even work?

20

Voice assistants are here to stay. I find both Siri and Alexa useful and helpful, and contrary to a poster above, sometimes faster then finding/launching the App on the phone. I also find voice searches (Google, Waze, Roku, Fire TV, etc.) to be a standard way to send input, and eventually I feel a standard way to interconnect all such devices. Perhaps one day we will get to select which assistant we want on what device.

As for Google’s assistant, well that’s what the battle is about, with Amazon ahead of the pack due to a early start and a surprise that so many people bought them which created a new product line. Google is ramping up abilities and has always done great at being ahead in the technology curve, however I don’t have any intention of a Google device as I already am invested in the Amazon ecosystem. What may change this is if Google starts dominating the digital assistant market and has lots more features that they others don’t and innovation slows down for the other devices.

Also Google has a history of abandoning products which are not a hit, such as Google + (facebook alternative), if it doesn’t not make it big, first they sort of let it exist but don’t push it then sometimes pull it totally. Google is fighting hard for Google voice, but Amazon is also, if Google can not dominate I expect them to back off and many would be left with a device which gets orphaned. So another reason for me not to dive into Google voice.