Smart Speaker Owners Aren't Yet Widely Using Them to Control Connected Home Devices

[MacRumors]

IHS Markit conducted a new survey in March and April 2018, asking 937 smart speaker owners various questions about the usage of their devices, spreading across the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Brazil. According to the findings that have been shared today, just six percent of smart speaker owners used their speakers to command smart home devices like lights, switches, and thermostats.

The speakers and assistants included in the survey were HomePod/Siri, Google Home/Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Bixby, and Amazon Echo/Alexa. The most popular category for smart speaker control for all speakers was asking about the weather and news, followed in descending order by: basic questions, music controls/discovery, sending a message and making a phone call, video controls/discovery, making a purchase, controlling smart home devices, and lastly a "none of these" category.

Despite the low usage rates for users interacting with smart home products through their speakers, IHS principal analyst Blake Kozak believes this will change in the near future.

"Controlling smart home devices by voice currently represents only a small fraction of total smart-speaker interactions," said Blake Kozak, principal analyst, smart home, IHS Markit. "However, this category will continue to trend upward as more video-streaming devices come to rely on voice control, as security alarm systems adopt voice control to arm and disarm, and as more builders embed smart devices throughout new homes."

Kozak believes that one area of potential smart home growth will come from insurance companies, who will "play a role" in educating customers about connected devices that could help them in their homes. These include products for water leak detection, flow detectors, and shutoff valves. In total, Kozak predicts more than one million home policies in North America will include at least one connected home device by the end of the year, and 450,000 smart speakers will be connected to insurance companies by that time as well.

In terms of smart assistant usage, Amazon Alexa was the most widely used voice assistant with 40 percent of respondents owning an Alexa device, and 23 percent owning a Google Home device. Siri came in third place, with the most inquiries for Apple's assistant also pertaining to the weather, news, and asking Siri a question.

For HomePod, Apple yesterday launched the smart speaker in Canada, France, and Germany via the Apple online store, Apple Store app, and in its retail locations in each country. HomePod allows users to command Siri to activate or deactivate their personal HomeKit products in the Home app, and represents Apple's first entry in the smart speaker market.

Article Link: Smart Speaker Owners Aren't Yet Widely Using Them to Control Connected Home Devices

 

[kemal]

Last black Friday week Amazon sold Echo devices at a sale price and offered $25 light switches for $5 with the Echo. I imagine that had some effect.

 

[nrose101]

It is the only way I use my Hue Lights. Odd survey.

 

[UNMENINU]

I'd love to use my Echo Plus to control my smart switches, if only it would connect to them or not forget them for no reason. That'd be ideal

 

[Boatboy24]

After the cost of the initial 'listening' device, users need to actually own other smart devices. I've had a Homepod for a few months now, and just purchased a couple smart outlets. Otherwise, there's nothing to control in my house. Yet.

It is kind of convenient to simply say 'Hey Siri, turn on the family room lights.' though.

 

[slimtastic]

No surprise. They're really not that useful.

 

[RogerWilco]

Home automation products have been available since the 1980s. The latest wrinkle involving web-connected "hubs" adds another layer of complexity, this is progress? Average people are consumers of technology, they don't write programs and they really don't care to program a HA system. Geeks love this HA stuff and wealthy people hire geeks to do the programming -- there's your market in a nutshell -- geeks and the wealthy.

 

[mattopotamus]

I see people either go big or not really use them at all. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground. For example, my parents have an Echo and use it essentially for questions or music. I have 5 Echo's and use them for multi-room music, smart home products (nest, hue lights, harmony hub, smart switches, fireTV), shopping list, reminders, timers, etc.

 

[shadedred]

It is the only way I use my Hue Lights. Odd survey.

I'm with you, in the minority, I use it everyday with my Hue lights.

 

[The Game 161]

I use both my HomePod and google mini for lights..works great.

 

[bbednarz]

You either like home automation stuff or you dont. Some friends will come over and think its really cool. Some others scoff at the idea and think its the dumbest thing theyve ever heard. I like tech, I think its cool that I can tell Siri goodnight and she turns off all the lights and turns on the bedroom fan. Once I own I house I can also have her set a certain temperature and lock the doors all with that one command. Its neat, but not necessary. Its not surprising to me that it isnt widely used.

I think the biggest issue is people dont know how to use them and set them up. I set up an echo and a couple of smart plugs for my parents under cabinet lighting. They wouldve never been able to get it set up on their own, but now that they have it they really like the simplicity.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Most likely because not many have home automation products.

 

[truthertech]

Every survey shows the number one reason people use their smartspeaker throughout the day is to listen to music. Makes sense that Apple focused on that out of the gate. LOL. Other surveys show the same thing--the HomePod can already do most everything, and do it very well, that people actually use their smart speakers for--playing music, checking traffic/weather/sports, messages, setting a timer, occasionally turning on an automated thing or two. Those same surveys show most people haven't activated a single Alexa "skill." Yes, it turns out that "make a fart noise" and other of the "skills" that other speakers are set up to do are not all that much in demand. Now, with Siri Shortcuts, though, if that's your thing, you will be able to have Siri do that for you.

That's why it's so silly to talk about how far ahead Amazon or Google are. They are only ahead to the extent they have been selling longer. The HomePod is just now being sold in more countries, and will likely be another hit that leaves the critics scratching their heads.

 

[NachoGrande]

I must have missed the survey. I use my echos daily.

 

[blacktape242]

for me mainly because its too annoying to set up, id rather control everything from my phone instead.

 

[RogerWilco]

I'd love to use my Echo Plus to control my smart switches, if only it would connect to them or not forget them for no reason. That'd be ideal

The garden variety light switch has zero latency and 99.9999% command reliability. Compare that to any of the myriad HA protocols and devices where latency is often measured in seconds and 95% is considered acceptable command reliability.

 

[Tapatio]

The problem with connected devices is all the different hubs that are needed. Wish there was only one that could control everything.

 

[cliffster82]

Talking to gadgets is still really strange to me.

 

[w5jck]

I use my Alexa enabled devices to control lights around my house, but she screws it up as often as not. Voice control is currently an epic failure. The so-called AI is more like non-intelligence, and that goes for all the different brand names using voice activation/control. They are all tied to their AI servers via the internet, so any hiccup along the pathways or within your home, or with any device and you have an epic failure. I spend more time arguing with Alexa and trying to get her to do simple instructions than I do getting lights turned on and the correct song played. These devices are not AI yet, they are dumb idiots at the moment. A dog is way more reliable. Some day they might get it right, but not until the servers are small enough to fit into the devices. To be totally honest, the only somewhat reliable way to control my smart home devices is to use my iPhone or iPad. Voice is totally unreliable and has too many parts that can fail.

 

[Baymowe335]

I don’t think this is uncommon. Apple going for a premium sound likely satisfies more of the marketing th near term.

Sorry guys, but that “big lead” Google has in voice assistant functionality and AI is predictably just not that useful on a big scale. I believe Apple has a lot of plans for their own virtual assistant and AI, but they understand the average consumer just doesn’t use these features enough at this point to make it a huge priority.

People would rather have Animoji. Laugh, but it’s likely true.

 

[grobik]

I would if it worked. Siri can only access my lights half the time. And when it does it's super slow.

 

[themick4u]

Mister Obvious:
Not using them because of limited support for devices by Apple's Homekit perhaps?

 

[nwcs]

I think their prediction that people will connect their home automation to insurance companies is a bit far fetched right now. I just don’t see people doing that without some noticeable incentive. Also there is a trust factor to some home automation. I have no problems with my thermostat and lights but I won’t trust my locks and garage door to automation. In most cases the only benefit is a minor convenience.

I’ve had Alexa for a few years and have HomePods. Both are about the same for me in usage. Alexa was a bit better at trivia but also had far far more false triggers from anything remotely sound line like Alexa.

 

[citysnaps]

My home automation system is z-wave based and runs under Indigo Domotics software. It’s one of the most comprehensive and flexible systems out there.

And although it can be controlled via HomePod and other voice command speakers, I have absolutely no desire to go in that direction.

 

[Quu]

Siri is a bit hit and miss for me when it comes to automation. I will say to her for example "Set fan to 30 Percent" and she will 50% of the time hear what I said as "set phone to 30 percent" and reply with "you're not playing any music".

She's a bit better with controlling my Hue lights but sometimes I'll tell her to turn a light on and she thought I said turn it off and tell me my lights are already off. Pretty unreliable.