At the moment, I mainly use only Apple devices, which continues to actively promote its Siri voice assistant. However, when setting up each new device, I immediately turn off all the capabilities of the assistant, except for the intelligent chips of the system, which are associated with it only by a common name. Interestingly, after buying an iPhone 4s about 10 years ago, I was 100% sure that I would continue to actively use Siri, not only to laugh at her answers. It’s a pity I was disappointed. But it saddens me even more that for such a long period of time nothing has changed. As before, I consider all the assistants in the market to be nothing more than a toy. And often quite useless.
Voice assistants hardly develop
We are surrounded by much more convenient methods of control
For 10 years, visual interfaces have made great strides forward. I remember very well skeuomorphism, which many liked visually, but clearly could not cope with the abundance of possibilities that were actively appearing on mobile devices. However, it is difficult to say that voice assistants, which were once positioned as a real revolution, have advanced just as significantly. Yes, they somehow learned to speak Russian, but they did not acquire a special number of new opportunities. Roughly speaking, with the help of them, you can, with grief in half, make a voice call and change the volume level. But more often it is more convenient to do all this from the smartphone or watch itself.
Voice assistants usually need internet to work
Therefore, they do not always function normally.
The work of voice assistants is still considered quite difficult for modern smartphones. Therefore, to process requests that come to them from users, there is an inevitable connection with the manufacturer’s servers via the Internet. On the one hand, it takes a lot of time. On the other hand, despite the presence of a fairly fast modern mobile Internet, it should be admitted that today it is not available everywhere. For example, when you travel between cities and drive a car and want to call someone using a voice assistant, you very often find yourself in a mess. You cannot make a call because the assistant cannot find the Internet.
Voice assistants often don’t recognize speech
This usually happens at the most inopportune moment.
Not so long ago I tried to conduct an experiment and start actively using a voice assistant. At the entrance to the parking lot near my house, an automatic gate is installed, which can be opened not only with a remote control, but also upon a call. Yes, it is enough to make a voice call to the specified number, and “Sim-sim” will immediately open. In order not to be distracted from the traffic situation, I began to ask for a Siri call. However, after a week of battles with my assistant, I gave up on this idea. The fact is that sometimes she did not understand the request even from the third time. Therefore, all the convenience of early activation of the mechanism was reduced to naught, he himself rested against the gate and made the call manually.
The speed of the voice assistants is also sad
It is faster to do something on your own than to ask
You launch the assistant using a special voice command, the smartphone thinks for a second or two. You ask to do something – the wait continues. As a result, you may also encounter a “misunderstanding” on the part of the assistant, and the whole process will have to be repeated from the very beginning. You ask yourself: “Why?” The point is to spend all this time, if it is easier to independently perform all the necessary sequence of actions ?! I have no answer to this question. That is why it is banal to turn off voice assistants on my devices so that they do not even accidentally start, because there is absolutely no practical benefit in this.
Communication with assistants still seems silly
Talking to a smartphone in a public place is inappropriate
When I tried to use voice assistants in public, more than once I came across misunderstandings from the public and caught quite strange looks on myself. It seems that the people around were thinking: “Well, boy, are you serious ?!” As a person who has repeatedly tried to tame voice assistants, I perfectly understand this surprise. Indeed, if this does not work, there is no point in trying again and again. Sometimes it seems to me that even if manufacturers make a breakthrough in the field of voice assistants, no one will want to use them anyway. There is already a negative experience of interaction, and few people want to repeat it.
It is not always appropriate to control equipment with a voice.
There are many scenarios where an alternative is needed for this.
Misunderstanding on the part of others has already been mentioned above, but there are other scenarios. Asking the assistant to find pictures of cats while being surrounded by colleagues in the office is rather stupid. Moreover, it is very strange to speak with assistants even at home. A small child can sleep peacefully in the next room, and it is important not to wake him up in any case. But what can I say, spouses can also relax in close proximity to each other, and unnecessary conversations are unlikely to be appropriate here.
The integration of assistants with the system and software is sad
Assistants may not work with third-party applications
It is also important to note the limitations of voice assistants. Apparently, the developers of third-party software are well aware that they are not particularly used, so they do not bother actively supporting them. For example, I myself try to keep a family budget and record my income and expenses using a popular mobile finance manager. It would be great to ask him to record small expenses by voice. You walk away from the checkout in your headphones and ask the assistant to inform the app about your spending. Of course, this and many other scenarios are simply not possible due to integration constraints. But what can I say, assistants cannot deal with many system functions.
For something complex, voice control is not suitable
Assistants can only handle primitive tasks
In the end, it seems to me very important to note that voice assistants are usually designed for extremely primitive tasks. Siri can be asked to turn down the AirPods’ volume, which is much easier with the Digital Crown on Apple Watch. But the assistant is simply not designed for anything more or less serious. Even 10 years after the launch, I cannot ask Siri to call a cafe and reserve a table for the evening, while I myself am in active professional amusement. Manufacturers sometimes show their best practices in this direction, but they are usually implemented at an extremely primitive level that still cannot be used on an ongoing basis. Actually, like the voice assistants themselves.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
