Alexa and Google Assistant Have a Problem: People Aren't Sticking With Voice Apps They Try (recode.net)

Amazon Echo and Google Home were the breakaway hits of the holiday shopping season. But both devices -- and the voice technologies that power them -- have some major hurdles to overcome if they want to keep both consumers and software developers engaged. From a report on Recode: That's one of the big takeaways from a new report that an industry startup, VoiceLabs, released on Monday. For starters, 69 percent of the 7,000-plus Alexa "Skills" -- voice apps, if you will -- have zero or one customer review, signaling low usage. What's more, when developers for Alexa and its competitor, Google Assistant, do get someone to enable a voice app, there's only a 3 percent chance, on average, that the person will be an active user by week 2, according to the report. (There are outliers that have week 2 retention rates of more than 20 percent.) For comparison's sake, Android and iOS apps have average retention rates of 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively, one week after first use. "There are lots of [voice] apps out there, but they are zombie apps," VoiceLabs co-founder Adam Marchick said in an interview.

Comments

Energy

[InfiniteZero]

It's simple physics. Voice requires more energy than a few taps on the screen.

Re:Energy

[ZecretZquirrel]

They also require a level of privacy that your finger does not.

Shocking!

[grasshoppa]

Do you mean to tell me that gimmicks have no longevity?

Craziness.

Re: Shocking!

[grasshoppa]

A voice activated 3D TV with a built in betamax player.

We'll own the market.

Re:When would I use this?

[cayenne8]

While driving it is almost useful?

I dunno, I don't mess with the phone in my car, I'm too busy concentrating on driving.....and jamming to what's on the stereo....and trying not to spill my beer.

Re:Maybe voice activation is overrated?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you support Putin's botnets winning elections for Trump?

Re:Reliability

[Weirsbaski]

My car uses voice-recognition to pick songs on the MP3 player. One time I told it to play "When I First Kissed You", and it started playing "Two Steps From Hell".

I think my car is going through a bad break-up with the Chevy down the block.

Re:Because it's annoying

[HiThere]

Sorry, but people talk to their phones, their cars, etc. all the time. Hell, they even talk to light switches "Why won't you turn on you stupid switch!".