In households everywhere, wake words or trigger phrases like “OK Google”, “Alexa”, and “Hey Siri” are thrown around, setting the tone for hands-free modern living—goodbye buttons and complicated finger toggling.
Smart voice assistants lend a helping hand in streamlining our somewhat strained relationship with technology. How exactly do they achieve this, you may ask? By combining voice recognition mechanisms, natural language processing, and AI, and responding to our queries in a natural human-like manner.
Contrary to popular opinion, the role of voice assistants goes far beyond playing the occasional song or announcing weather forecasts.
From integrating with various smart home equipment and doubling up as burglar deterrents to checking our bank balance, they’re quickly becoming a mainstay in our homes—not to mention integral members of family life.
How do you access voice assistants?
Voice assistants are typically housed in smart devices that connect to your home Wi-Fi. The most basic devices are smartphones and tablets, with iOS users having access to Siri, Samsung users to Bixby, and most Android phones to Google Assistant.
Next up are smart speakers. A key player in this category is Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa. Amazon’s speakers include the much-acclaimed Amazon Echo and its other variants, Google is known for its “Nest” speakers, and Apple has its range of “HomePods”.
Depending on the speaker brand you opt for, you will get access to its respective voice assistant. But here’s where things get interesting. Smart speakers are increasingly becoming smart hubs, seamlessly connecting all your devices or IOT (Internet of Things).
The result? Setting an auto-shut timer for your air conditioner and dimming your bedside light is only a matter of vocalising a few crisp commands.
According to Statista, the global market share of Amazon Echo is 65%, followed by Google Home’s 26% and Apple HomePod’s 19%. In India alone, the statistics depict Amazon Echo owners as a whopping 61%, with Google Home (28%) and Apple HomePod (14%) as the next two popular choices.
Prerequisites for setting up your home assistant smart speaker
Setting up a home assistant involves more than just plugging in and chatting. While we may wish it were that simple, a decent amount of pre-work is required. But with guided instructions and some help, you can reap the benefits in no time!
If you don’t have an email address, it’s time to create one. You could get help from a relative or friend or watch a basic YouTube tutorial on how to create an email account. Doing so is essential since your smart speaker will get linked to it.
Note that you may receive frequent (and often bothersome) alerts when you link your smart speaker to an existing email synced with your mobile phone. The workaround would be to create a separate account for your speaker.
If privacy is a concern, using your email account rather than one synced with another individual’s device is advisable. Remember, your command history can be accessed through email, and you wouldn’t want your relatives stumbling upon requests like, “Alexa, will you flatter me?”
Once your email ID is in place, the next must-have is a Wi-Fi connection. This connection not only ensures prompt responses but creates a medium through which your smart devices can effectively communicate with one another.
Research firm TechARC’s Smart Homes of India report found that 92% of all consumers with connected devices such as smart bulbs, speakers, or televisions use voice features to communicate with these gadgets. Whoever knew?
How to set up your voice assistant smart speaker
Let’s break down the setup of the three greats—Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod.
Amazon Echo
Start by plugging your Amazon Echo speaker into the wall. Upon doing so, a blue ring will light up at the top, followed by a “Hello” from Alexa. To continue with the setup process, download the Alexa app.
On the app, tap the Devices icon at the bottom right to connect the speaker to your home Wi-Fi. And there you have it.
All that’s required now is to “wake” the speaker by saying “Alexa”, followed by a command or question. What’s more, you can train her to identify different people’s voices in your house so that it delivers personalised output in terms of music, audiobooks, and reminders. On the Alexa app, hit settings>Alexa account>Recognised voices.
Google Home
When you plug in your Google Home speaker, you’ll see four white dots light up and hear a “Hello” from Google Assistant.
Download the Google Home app and click on Set up for the Google Home device. You’ll hear a test sound to confirm it’s connected to the correct speaker. Select Yes.
Name the room you placed your speaker in and select your Wi-Fi network. After saying the wake phrase, “Hey, Google” or “OK, Google,” you’re all set to start talking. Like the Amazon speaker, you could train it to recognise your unique voice by tapping Voice Match in the app.
Apple HomePod
On plugging in your Apple HomePod, coloured lights will appear on the top, accompanied by a sound. There is no need to install an app since your iOS device already includes one built-in. Simply bring your device close to the HomePod speaker, and it should connect automatically. Make sure your Bluetooth is enabled and your device is connected to Wi-Fi.
Select Set Up. Choose the room your HomePod is sitting in, and tap Continue. Place your device over the HomePod, wait till you hear the chimes, and you’re set. The wake-up phrase is “Hey Siri”.
How voice assistants are changing the game for elderly adults
More often than we’d like, ageing brings with it mobility issues, impaired vision, feelings of isolation, and various other worrisome concerns that take a toll on our mental and physical well-being. In such cases, digital assistants act like companions, making our lives easier and more accessible.
Be it a friend you can have a good ol’ chat with or a trivia master quizzing you on the latest happenings, voice assistants can become who you want them to be. Here are six compelling reasons to incorporate them into your life.
- Call an emergency contact
Emergencies strike unannounced. Knowing your loved one is a voice command away brings tremendous relief. This feature comes in handy for elderly individuals living alone. They may encounter slips or other untoward incidents that make it difficult to reach their phones in time. A quick shout to your voice assistant, such as, “Alexa, call <contact’s name>” or “OK Google, call <contact’s name>”, assures that help is on the way.
Please note that you must grant permission to make calls through the smart speaker via the respective Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Home app for this feature to work. And don’t forget to test it out beforehand.
- Turn on the bathroom light
Navigating through the darkness at night and attempting to locate and toggle the right light switches can prove quite the task. What if you could ask your voice assistant to do it? That’s right. Saying, “Alexa, turn on the bathroom light” from the comfort of your bed removes the hassle of finding your way.
This command will only function if you purchase a smart plug for your bathroom lights or a smart light and connect it to your smart speaker using the corresponding app. The same principle applies to activating security cameras, setting your air conditioner timer, or securing your front door. If this functionality grows on you, the next thing you know, you will have revamped your home into a smart one.
- Medication reminders
Sometimes, taking the proper medications on time can mean the difference between recovery and hospital admission. Having someone remind you to take your pills is a genuine blessing. You can entrust this task to your voice assistant. For example, give it instructions, like, “Alexa, remind me to take my cholesterol medicine every day at 1:30 pm.”
While humans can get wired up with other commitments, your voice assistant remains fool-proof, never faltering. And the best part? You can also set pill reminders for your husband or wife (or any other family member) in the same way. Just be prepared when your spouse claims Alexa does a better job giving reminders than you do!
- Remember important dates
You can’t always blame missed anniversaries, birthdays that slipped by, and your granddaughter’s wiped-out-from-memory Christmas party on forgetful follies of ageing. So, before you land in the middle of earth-shattering drama, ask your voice assistant to save the date. Pro tip: You’ll be better off setting two reminders—one for the day itself and another for the day before (you know, just in case).
Set these important reminders like you’d do for medication (point above).
- Get sound sleep
There is no denying that quality sleep goes out the window as we get older, but your voice assistant could help alleviate your sleepless woes. Ask it to play a guided sleep meditation, soothing music, or white/brown noise, and slowly find yourself slipping into a deep slumber.
- Listen to Audiobooks
Alexa owners can choose from audiobook services, Audible and Kindle, while Google Assistant-enabled speakers can play audiobooks bought from the Google Play Books app.
When you buy the book on Audible or Google Play Books, ensure you are signed into the same Amazon or Google account you used to purchase the book on your smart speaker. Now, all you have to do is talk to your voice assistant, saying, “Read <book title>”, and if you don’t want to listen to the prologue, “Skip to chapter one”.
Are voice assistants privy to all your conversations?
Companies claim that voice assistants come alive only when you use their respective wake words. But not everyone is buying that story. For all you know, these devices could be incessantly listening for marketers to use that information to amp up their advertising efforts.
Say, you give them the benefit of the doubt and agree that the devices only listen on hearing the wake word, but even then, voice assistants can make mistakes. Anyone with a voice assistant device may have experienced it accidentally getting triggered by random background noise. It’s a common phenomenon (and outright annoying, to say the least).
A Statista report shows that 45% of users worldwide are wary about voice data privacy, and rightfully so. While companies such as Google, Amazon, and Apple are addressing these issues to develop a more robust privacy system, at the end of the day, it is technology we’re dealing with, which means it’s not always perfect.
A quick fix for this problem would be temporarily disabling your Amazon Echo and Google Home devices through the app or pressing the physical mute button on its body. It’s a tiny button with a microphone icon on it. The Apple HomePod, on the other hand, doesn’t have a button, so you’ll either need to temporarily disable it through the app or say, “Hey Siri, stop listening.” The inconvenience with manual interventions like these is the back and forth of disabling and turning it on. Moreover, how often would you remember to disable it? My guess is not too frequently.
Most of us keep our voice assistant devices right next to where we’re probably discussing every minute detail of our lives. While these devices offer benefits galore, they do pose certain privacy risks.
We’ll leave it to you; it’s a call you must take after careful consideration.
