Study: Smart Speaker Use Increases During Quarantine

New research from The Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research finds that 77% of those in the U.S. age 18+ are experiencing a change in their typical routine due to the outbreak of COVID-19 as of April 1, and voice-assistant usage has expanded during these disruptions.

The annual survey, part of the industry’s longest-running public research series about smart speaker consumer behavior in the U.S., captures new data on smart speaker ownership -- now reaching 24% of the U.S. population A18+ (60M) -- and how consumers are weathering the COVID-19 pandemic at the time the survey fielded March 31- April 1, 2020. The full study is available now at npr.org/smartaudio.

With stay-at-home orders and the closing of nonessential businesses across the country from mid-March to the present, adults in the U.S. are behaving in accordance with regulations. Forty-one percent of U.S. adults say they are staying at home and not leaving unless it is an emergency, and 54% are only going to places they feel safe and/or are necessary.

 The Smart Audio Report measured how those affected by the restrictions are using voice assistants:

• 36% of U.S. adult smart speaker owners say they are using their device more to listen to music and entertainment since the outbreak, and 52% of 18-34-year-olds say the same.
• 35% of U.S. adult smart speaker owners are listening to more news and information since the COVID-19 outbreak, and 50% of those ages 18-34 say t he same.
• Usage of voice commands in general has increased slightly since the COVID-19 outbreak, with 52% of voice-assistant users saying they use voice tech several times a day or nearly every day, compared to 46% before the outbreak.

 “With tens of millions of Americans no longer commuting, smart speakers are becoming even more important as a conduit for news and information,” noted Edison Research SVP Tom Webster, “and this increased usage and facility with voice assistants will likely increase demand for this technology in vehicles once our commutes resume.”

“Our daily routines may have changed, but our need for easy access to reliable journalism remains critical - even more so than ever before, “ said NPR Vice President of New Platform Partnerships Joel Sucherman. “We see that in listening patterns and the continued growth in the number of devices Americans have in their homes.”

Other key findings include:

• Of those whose voice assistants, more than two-thirds say they ‘make their lives easier’.
• 46% of smart speaker owners say they use their smartphone voice assistant more since acquiring their smart speaker
• 59% of smart speaker owners who also use a voice assistant on their smartphone say the tasks they use for each of the devices are mostly different
• 52% of smart speaker non-owners who use some type of voice commands are likely or very likely to buy a smart speaker in the next six months -- 34% of all smart speaker non-owners say they are likely or very likely to buy a device in the next six months

The Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research, which debuted in 2017, is a re-ocurring study on trends in Smart Speaker ownership and voice assistant user behavior. A full archive of research from the Report is available atwww.npr.org/smartaudio.

 How This Study Was Conducted
The Smart Audio Report Spring 2020 is based upon a national telephone survey of 1,002 U.S. adults age 18 and older, conducted December 31, 2019 through January 5, 2020, and a national online survey of 1,660 U.S. adults age 18 and older, conducted March 31, 2020 through April 1, 2020.