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I never got the value of voice devices. In my experience you learn how to make them do 1-2 things. You learn a few patterns. But beyond that, even if they work

I never got the value of voice devices. In my experience you learn how to make them do 1-2 things. You learn a few patterns. But beyond that, even if they work 95% of the time, that 1 in 20 is annoying enough to make me not want to use it and just push a few buttons. Maybe case in point is using voice in the car. It should be the best, most obvious application. Yet aside from maybe texting, people want things like Apple CarPlay - a big touchscreen - not voice commands.

kypro 4y ago
Combine this with the privacy concerns and that's why I've never brought one personally. I know a lot of people who have them but rarely ever use them. The only good use case I've seen is if you're having a conversation / debate with someone you can use them as a real-time fact checker.
cmsj 4y ago
CarPlay and Siri is a pretty compelling pairing though. Looking/touching is dangerous while driving, so that is minimised by also being able to talk to the robot.
- ghaff 4y ago
  It would be nice were that actually the case. However, in practice, I tend to find that doing most things just using voice with my hands on the wheel and eyes on the road ends up being a really frustrating experience. This isn't a particular knock on Siri specifically. I'm pretty sure I'd find Google or Alexa similarly annoying in the same context. As someone says up-thread, Alexa at home is fine for a few formulaic things that I know the incantation for and pretty useless for everything else.
  - mrtranscendence 4y ago
    I'm not a big user of Siri, but I've had better luck than you describe. Siri will reliably play songs and podcasts I request; read out text messages; transcribe my response to text messages; and find directions to places. This is about as much as I really want.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      I find podcasts and playlists pretty frustrating generally. But then I tend to want to listen to something fairly specific as opposed to more or less whatever as background; I've never been a big radio listener. I have used it for texts but that's very uncommon and directions can be hit and miss to make changes on the fly. It's definitely better than nothing but it's a far cru from a passenger doing that sort of thing for you.
      - Godel_unicode 4y ago
        I have the same use case but with very different results. “hotwords play my playlist foo” works for many values of foo with both google assistant and Siri. Ditto mapping, ditto sending texts. Do you have an uncommon accent?
jjtheblunt 4y ago
> people want things like Apple CarPlay - a big touchscreen - not voice commands I don't know the answer, but i wonder why you say that's what people want, since the high end BMW and Audi and Mercedes cars etc now all have their own voice commands to _avoid_ using the touchscreen (presumably for driving). I wonder how they even get a survey that's representative.
- nojito 4y ago
  Because customers are demanding CarPlay https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/29/apple-carplay-massive-success-paves-way-for-automotive-entry.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/29/apple-carplay-massive-succes...
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    thanks (seriously cool article)
readthenotes1 4y ago
I don't get the value either, but i sure do miss it when I'm away.
wastedimage 4y ago
I used to feel that way and I only had Siri devices since I had privacy concerns. Somehow I ended up with a free echo dot and it was significantly better. I got some smart lights since my kids could not remember to turn the lights off and now I have that on a privacy network associated with alexa and I've been impressed with the voice recognition. If you have a huge house being able to say 'alexa turn off the upstairs lights' or 'turn on the garage light' when you have a trash bag in your arms is pretty great.
jdhn 4y ago
Voice devices are actually very handy for those with mobility impairments. That being said, I have yet to meet anybody who actually uses these voice assistants daily (other than the aforementioned people with mobility issues).
- treis 4y ago
  Definitely use ours on a daily basis. Pause TV, play music, set timers, broadcast to other devices, set the thermostat, call people, and doorbell notifications. Nothing earth shattering or life changing but more useful than not.
- dangrossman 4y ago
  My family uses ours daily and they're fully integrated into our routines. They're our alarm clocks that wake us, and are how we check the weather to decide how to get dressed in the morning. I ask them to turn on the lights in the morning, and to turn them off at night. Alexa locks my front door and closes my garage before bed. In the kitchen, every time we cook, we ask Alexa to preheat the oven or air fryer, and ask her to set the timers for whatever we're cooking.
  - thoughtpeddler 4y ago
    It's not good practice to connect your security systems to your voice assistant, especially door locks. Maybe this isn't the case in your home, but in smaller apartments it's certainly possible for a malicious actor to say "Hey {voice_assistant}, unlock front door", and they gain access. It's the modern day "open sesame".
    - dangrossman 4y ago
      They thought of that many years ago, before adding lock support to Alexa. You can lock the door with a simple command, but unlocking or opening requires a pin code. Nobody can get into my house by shouting through the windows.
      - 4y ago
nharada 4y ago
I really only use my echo for a few things, but those things I do nearly daily and it provides enough value that I'd replace it if it broke. I don't need it to be an "everything device".
jbms 4y ago
Kitchen use cases for voice for me: Setting multiple named alarms while cooking and often my hands are not clean to handle a phone or they're holding something going in an oven or they're stirring something. Adding things to Todo lists or shopping lists as I notice them. Setting alarms when I set a cup of tea to brew so I don't forget about it. I have to walk back to the room to stop it ringing, which means I can add milk and pick up my tea. Changing what I'm listening to while washing dishes. I'm already distractible enough, not having to pick up my phone to do them also means I'm less likely to get distracted.
outworlder 4y ago
> and just push a few buttons. There are just so many buttons to push, it's not only about lights. Remember, they have 'routines' that can easily equate to dozens of button pushes. Even without routines, I can tell it to set all lights in a room at some percentage. And no, I can't just wire a dimmer, because they are spread across light fixtures. Sometimes your hands are busy and it's good to be able to control stuff. If anything, they should make it easier to add commands (I want to be able to change 3D printer settings without have to fiddle with the interface – it's connected to Homeassistant so it has access to controls). It's not just for that either. Alarms, timers, unit conversions, translations, calls from echo to echo in different rooms, weather at some location, purchases (and asking where are they)... you can even ask if some food can be given to your dog. I will agree that it's infuriating when they don't work. And it doesn't seem to difficult to fix. There are commands I use frequently, chances are I am using them again. Asking to turn of the lights and having it play some random song is ridiculous.
ytpete 4y ago
To me the key question is the value of voice devices. There may be good use cases for voice assistants – but many of those interactions can take place via your phone, which is always close by. What do dedicated hardware devices like Alexa add above and beyond that? They have a nicer speaker for playing music, but there's a whole ecosystem of bluetooth speakers you can use your phone with. They can control smart lightbulbs which I think phones don't have the right antenna for... but it feels like that could be solved by a $20 Chromecast-like dongle that your phone talks to over wifi. Is there anything else left to justify separate hardware, especially hardware that's likely sold break-even or at a loss?

kypro 4y ago

Combine this with the privacy concerns and that's why I've never brought one personally. I know a lot of people who have them but rarely ever use them. The only good use case I've seen is if you're having a conversation / debate with someone you can use them as a real-time fact checker.

cmsj 4y ago

CarPlay and Siri is a pretty compelling pairing though. Looking/touching is dangerous while driving, so that is minimised by also being able to talk to the robot.

ghaff 4y ago
It would be nice were that actually the case. However, in practice, I tend to find that doing most things just using voice with my hands on the wheel and eyes on the road ends up being a really frustrating experience. This isn't a particular knock on Siri specifically. I'm pretty sure I'd find Google or Alexa similarly annoying in the same context. As someone says up-thread, Alexa at home is fine for a few formulaic things that I know the incantation for and pretty useless for everything else.
- mrtranscendence 4y ago
  I'm not a big user of Siri, but I've had better luck than you describe. Siri will reliably play songs and podcasts I request; read out text messages; transcribe my response to text messages; and find directions to places. This is about as much as I really want.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I find podcasts and playlists pretty frustrating generally. But then I tend to want to listen to something fairly specific as opposed to more or less whatever as background; I've never been a big radio listener. I have used it for texts but that's very uncommon and directions can be hit and miss to make changes on the fly. It's definitely better than nothing but it's a far cru from a passenger doing that sort of thing for you.
    - Godel_unicode 4y ago
      I have the same use case but with very different results. “hotwords play my playlist foo” works for many values of foo with both google assistant and Siri. Ditto mapping, ditto sending texts. Do you have an uncommon accent?

jjtheblunt 4y ago

> people want things like Apple CarPlay - a big touchscreen - not voice commands I don't know the answer, but i wonder why you say that's what people want, since the high end BMW and Audi and Mercedes cars etc now all have their own voice commands to _avoid_ using the touchscreen (presumably for driving). I wonder how they even get a survey that's representative.

nojito 4y ago
Because customers are demanding CarPlay https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/29/apple-carplay-massive-success-paves-way-for-automotive-entry.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/29/apple-carplay-massive-succes...
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  thanks (seriously cool article)

readthenotes1 4y ago

I don't get the value either, but i sure do miss it when I'm away.

wastedimage 4y ago

I used to feel that way and I only had Siri devices since I had privacy concerns. Somehow I ended up with a free echo dot and it was significantly better. I got some smart lights since my kids could not remember to turn the lights off and now I have that on a privacy network associated with alexa and I've been impressed with the voice recognition. If you have a huge house being able to say 'alexa turn off the upstairs lights' or 'turn on the garage light' when you have a trash bag in your arms is pretty great.

jdhn 4y ago

Voice devices are actually very handy for those with mobility impairments. That being said, I have yet to meet anybody who actually uses these voice assistants daily (other than the aforementioned people with mobility issues).

treis 4y ago
Definitely use ours on a daily basis. Pause TV, play music, set timers, broadcast to other devices, set the thermostat, call people, and doorbell notifications. Nothing earth shattering or life changing but more useful than not.
dangrossman 4y ago
My family uses ours daily and they're fully integrated into our routines. They're our alarm clocks that wake us, and are how we check the weather to decide how to get dressed in the morning. I ask them to turn on the lights in the morning, and to turn them off at night. Alexa locks my front door and closes my garage before bed. In the kitchen, every time we cook, we ask Alexa to preheat the oven or air fryer, and ask her to set the timers for whatever we're cooking.
- thoughtpeddler 4y ago
  It's not good practice to connect your security systems to your voice assistant, especially door locks. Maybe this isn't the case in your home, but in smaller apartments it's certainly possible for a malicious actor to say "Hey {voice_assistant}, unlock front door", and they gain access. It's the modern day "open sesame".
  - dangrossman 4y ago
    They thought of that many years ago, before adding lock support to Alexa. You can lock the door with a simple command, but unlocking or opening requires a pin code. Nobody can get into my house by shouting through the windows.
    - 4y ago

nharada 4y ago

I really only use my echo for a few things, but those things I do nearly daily and it provides enough value that I'd replace it if it broke. I don't need it to be an "everything device".

jbms 4y ago

Kitchen use cases for voice for me: Setting multiple named alarms while cooking and often my hands are not clean to handle a phone or they're holding something going in an oven or they're stirring something. Adding things to Todo lists or shopping lists as I notice them. Setting alarms when I set a cup of tea to brew so I don't forget about it. I have to walk back to the room to stop it ringing, which means I can add milk and pick up my tea. Changing what I'm listening to while washing dishes. I'm already distractible enough, not having to pick up my phone to do them also means I'm less likely to get distracted.

outworlder 4y ago

> and just push a few buttons. There are just so many buttons to push, it's not only about lights. Remember, they have 'routines' that can easily equate to dozens of button pushes. Even without routines, I can tell it to set all lights in a room at some percentage. And no, I can't just wire a dimmer, because they are spread across light fixtures. Sometimes your hands are busy and it's good to be able to control stuff. If anything, they should make it easier to add commands (I want to be able to change 3D printer settings without have to fiddle with the interface – it's connected to Homeassistant so it has access to controls). It's not just for that either. Alarms, timers, unit conversions, translations, calls from echo to echo in different rooms, weather at some location, purchases (and asking where are they)... you can even ask if some food can be given to your dog. I will agree that it's infuriating when they don't work. And it doesn't seem to difficult to fix. There are commands I use frequently, chances are I am using them again. Asking to turn of the lights and having it play some random song is ridiculous.

ytpete 4y ago

To me the key question is the value of voice devices. There may be good use cases for voice assistants – but many of those interactions can take place via your phone, which is always close by. What do dedicated hardware devices like Alexa add above and beyond that? They have a nicer speaker for playing music, but there's a whole ecosystem of bluetooth speakers you can use your phone with. They can control smart lightbulbs which I think phones don't have the right antenna for... but it feels like that could be solved by a $20 Chromecast-like dongle that your phone talks to over wifi. Is there anything else left to justify separate hardware, especially hardware that's likely sold break-even or at a loss?