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Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Survey IDs Emerging Uses For Smart Speakers


Currently, 32 percent of consumers own a smart speaker, like an Amazon Echo or Google Home, and nearly half will own one by the end of the year, according to CNBC citing a survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers by Adobe Analytics published Monday.

So what's everyone doing with their gadgets?

Common functions like listening to music and asking for the weather remain the most popular uses, according to Adobe's survey.

Using smart speakers with the capabilities to make calls are also popular.


Survey respondents also reported using their devices for more complicated tasks, like checking traffic, asking for food to be delivered and shopping.


While shopping remains a less common use of smart speakers, those who do say they hunt for products with their voice assistant largely use it to research before they buy: 47 percent of smart speaker shoppers use the device to conduct general product search, while 43 percent use the speaker for making shopping lists and 32 percent for price comparisons.

These functions are powered by Alexa on Amazon devices, and Google Assistant on Google's speakers. Both voice assistants are bolstered by software, similar to apps, that gives them more capabilities.

On Echo devices these third-party developed apps are called "skills," and users can enable them for Alexa to do everything from play to CNBC's top headlines, to give updates on Kardashian news. There are over 40,000 third-party skills in Amazon's skills store, which you can find online or in the Amazon Alexa app.

For Google Home devices, these functions are called "actions," and there are over 1 million first and third-party actions users can enable.

In January, The Smart Audio report found that 39 million adults owned smart speakers.

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