Alexa, Unlock the Internet
The Echo Taps Into ‘Vocal Computing’
Earlier this week, I finally got an Amazon Echo (thanks, megan!). While I’ve been wanting to try it out for months, I’d also been dragging my feet. Because, once the novelty wears off, how cool could it really be?
The answer is very cool.
Admittedly, I’m less than a week into using the device. And honestly, I’m still not 100 percent sure how we’ll use the thing day-to-day.¹ But I now believe in the power of Alexa, Echo’s female voice, as a platform.
In fact, I think Echo makes it very clear that Apple (and to a lesser extent, Google) dropped a ball here. This is exactly how Siri should exist in your home. And this is what that orb thing Google made a few years back should have been.
Yes, Siri exists in the home now via Apple TV. Sort of. Because of the still-limited functionality of that device, she actually resides much more comfortably in your home via any number of other iOS devices — iPhones, iPads, etc. The key to the Echo, in my mind, is two-fold:
- It’s always on, always in the same place, always listening.
- It’s a dedicated device for this functionality.
These seem like small, subtle distinctions. But it’s only after using an Echo that they become obvious. Having to do any sort of physical action to “turn on” Siri is actually a big deterrent. If you’re already using your phone, it’s less so. But if you’re not and you think of something to ask, it means pulling out your phone (or tablet), and hitting a button. (Assuming you have your phone/tablet on you, which you may not always in your home, of course.) Same for the Apple TV (but again, with more limited functionality). And don’t get me started on using Apple Watch for this…
Yes, you can say “Hey Siri” if your iOS device is plugged in — but at least in our home, that’s almost never the case in the living room/kitchen — nor do I ever find myself doing this anyway. (Update: As a number of folks have pointed out, with the iPhone 6s line, you actually don’t need the device to be plugged in. Still, I have an iPhone 6s Plus and never once found myself using Siri in this way.) More importantly, it leads to point two.
Having a dedicated device for these early days of voice interaction seems key. Because people aren’t yet used to talking to machines, there needs to be a bridge to get there. That bridge, I think, will be Echo. Yes, Siri and Google Now have made talking to machines more normal, but it’s still for various edge-cases on your phones/tablets. Because most of the time it’s still easier, or better to type things out. Echo offers no such crutch.
This is why it feels like Echo, even though it came after Siri/Cortana/Google Now, is the first true “vocal computing” device. And why it will move the genre forward.
The first dozen times you say “Alexa” it feels a little silly. The next dozen times, it feels not only natural, but obvious. “Alexa, what temperature is it outside?” “Alexa, what’s the latest news?” “Alexa, play some Iron & Wine.” It starts to feel a little odd that we’d ever pull out some remote control — or worse, our phones, to do such actions.
And because Amazon wisely made Echo a platform, we’re going to see a lot more of these interesting, lightweight interactions. “Alexa, call me an Uber.”
Yes, this will all sound mildly creepy and just plain weird to some people — paradigm shifts usually do.² Then all of a sudden we’ll all be doing it and it will be completely normal. And we’ll wonder why we ever did these things any other way. How silly.
¹ A meteorologist? A DJ? A quiz show host? It could be all of the above! And more!
² Yet seem perfectly normal to children — which is a refrain I hear time and time again about families with the Echo: “the kids love it.”
