Compared to previous developments, the 2020 survey figures show flat-to-decreasing usage.
The law, quoted by Rai Amara often, is "We seek to minimize the impact and short-term impact of short-term technology." This is especially true of voice and voice search.
The use of voice and virtual assistants has steadily increased since Siri launched a decade ago, and the market has not changed. Smart speakers are a good case-in-point: many who are widely embraced fail to become a great revolutionary product.
Now data from Performance Digital’s survey shows that the voice has touched a variety of plateaus. This is the fourth year that the agency has asked more than 1,000 adults about the use of voice, voice search, and virtual assistants. Last year's survey found that voice in mobile browsers ranks as the "first choice" entry point for mobile search (ranking fourth among all answers).
The current survey does not reflect this “first choice” category. Overall, voice search ranks fourth. Question: "How can you ask questions on your smartphone?" All votes were captured by manually entering the search app, browser, or search bar on the phone. Thus the use appears to be flat.
Beyond this, although there is a positive relationship with education, there appears to be a decrease in voice use for people of all educational levels. College graduates and those with higher education use more voice than those with less education.
The survey also asked respondents how often they use smart speakers to search for information. “Never” and “Less than twice a week” responses were the majority (56%); 44% used it at least twice a week, and 20% of 44% used it six to nine (or more) times a week. It argues that smart speakers are not a search option for other devices, although "search" volumes can expand.
The survey continues to determine what factors may explain the results. It states that users with virtual assistants do not understand frustrating commands or questions (or wrong answers), partially explaining this flat-to-declining usage. By the same token, better accuracy and better understanding will probably create additional usage frequency.
Why do we not care? With the most compelling methods, the early promotion has given way to slow, incremental growth. In a sense, voice is an alternative input mechanism for text. But in a second it represents a fundamentally different user experience. And backstage voice technology is constantly refining to the public.
As noted in the survey talk, most non-traditional connected devices are voice-centric: "77% of all devices connected to the Internet are tablet, PC, or smartphone." Voice is actually the successor to the next generation of devices, the UI and the Virtual Assistants "innovation". It takes longer than it should.
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