What are voice assistants and what is the voice market situation? How can those assistants simplify your day-to-day chores?
The world of voice assistants is increasingly permanent and persistent. With your voice, you can now perform several actions, and smart speakers are an ally in your day-to-day tasks. What is the situation of voice technology? What are the main types of smart speakers and what can you do with your voice?
A voice technology overview
The world of voice technology and voice assistants is constantly expanding. Based on Juniper Research forecasts, within 2024, the number of voice assistants installed on devices will be higher than global population, reaching 8.4 billion devices. In the first 3 months of 2020, according to a survey by Strategy Analytics, the global smart speaker market has increased by 8.2%; 28.2 million smart devices have been delivered worldwide, with Alexa covering 23.5% and Google 19.3%.
Smart speakers: what are they and what types are there?
Before understanding what we can do with a voice assistant, we should explain the difference between a smart speaker and a voice assistant. The latter are IT programs or software (such as Amazon’s Alexa) that can listen and understand human language, interpret it and react accordingly, by providing answers or performing the actions requested by the user, such as programming appliances remotely.
Smart speakers, on the other hand, are hardware devices (such as Amazon Echo) equipped with a speaker, a microphone and a Wi-Fi connection. Smart speakers are equipped with a software – i.e. the voice assistant – that is the AI core that can understand human language.
Concerning the types of smart speakers, the most common and popular ones are:
- Google Home, Google’s smart speaker par excellence.
- Amazon Echo, Amazon’s battle horse.
What can you do with voice assistants?
Voice assistants are a great help in day-to-day chores. Thanks to the hOn app, you can connect your appliances to Google Home or Amazon Alexa, and control any compatible appliance with your voice. In particular, you can start a program, check its status, ask for advice on several things (such as the cooking method or temperature, in case of the oven).
How do you connect the hOn app to the smart speakers? Easy: select the icon with three bars on the top left corner of the Home Page, then tap on “Settings” and then on “Smart Speakers Configuration”. Now follow the instructions to link your device and find out the voice commands available.
Voice can be a great help for your every-day tasks, and with the hOn app, this is even truer!
*Smart Speakers available only on specific models/product
