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Most home assistants have extremely limited language support, which is fine for younger people in bigger cities that speak english, but that's about it. Plus h

Most home assistants have extremely limited language support, which is fine for younger people in bigger cities that speak english, but that's about it. Plus home assistants in America can order things for you, get your local movie times, and have a host of other features mostly only available in the US and certain locations. Unless you live in Germany, Japan, or the US better home assistants are still a year or two away.

krn 8y ago
That's true, in a small European country home assistants will never be as feature-proof as they are in the US, and the language support might never even be there, when the language is spoken by fewer than 3 million people. Yet, most people under 40 speak English and have Google Assistant in their smartphones, but I have never heard of anyone actually using it. Probably because everything is already a few taps away with Google always sitting in one's pocket, and people in my country still consider the idea of talking to a device a bit weird. Especially, when being around others.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> Most home assistants have extremely limited language support, which is fine for younger people in bigger cities that speak english, but that's about it. And that's if you can make them actually use English. I'm baffled by the amount of technology that needs forceful and sometimes sophisticated (e.g. Google Search) reminders that just because I'm a Pole from Poland, doesn't mean I want to talk to technology in Polish. > Plus home assistants in America can order things for you, get your local movie times, and have a host of other features mostly only available in the US and certain locations. That would be a big factor IMO, if not the factor. Hype waves around smart assistants happen everywhere simultaneously, but most features are initially implemented only for the US (hell, I don't think any voice assistant available in Europe actually has feature parity with what you get when using it in the US). By the time those assistants become available and somewhat usable outside the States, nobody cares anymore.
renholder 8y ago
>Most home assistants have extremely limited language support Can confirm: Roommate's Alexa cannot understand Swedish, whatsoever. I think the smaller-sized language markets are "too small" for them to even care. In other words, they don't see an ROI on it, yet; plus, almost everyone speaks English, these days, so that's more of an argument for them not to bother.

krn 8y ago

That's true, in a small European country home assistants will never be as feature-proof as they are in the US, and the language support might never even be there, when the language is spoken by fewer than 3 million people. Yet, most people under 40 speak English and have Google Assistant in their smartphones, but I have never heard of anyone actually using it. Probably because everything is already a few taps away with Google always sitting in one's pocket, and people in my country still consider the idea of talking to a device a bit weird. Especially, when being around others.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> Most home assistants have extremely limited language support, which is fine for younger people in bigger cities that speak english, but that's about it. And that's if you can make them actually use English. I'm baffled by the amount of technology that needs forceful and sometimes sophisticated (e.g. Google Search) reminders that just because I'm a Pole from Poland, doesn't mean I want to talk to technology in Polish. > Plus home assistants in America can order things for you, get your local movie times, and have a host of other features mostly only available in the US and certain locations. That would be a big factor IMO, if not the factor. Hype waves around smart assistants happen everywhere simultaneously, but most features are initially implemented only for the US (hell, I don't think any voice assistant available in Europe actually has feature parity with what you get when using it in the US). By the time those assistants become available and somewhat usable outside the States, nobody cares anymore.

renholder 8y ago

>Most home assistants have extremely limited language support Can confirm: Roommate's Alexa cannot understand Swedish, whatsoever. I think the smaller-sized language markets are "too small" for them to even care. In other words, they don't see an ROI on it, yet; plus, almost everyone speaks English, these days, so that's more of an argument for them not to bother.