Why Voice Assistants Still Don’t Work Together?
Every UX designer or product developer working on voice interfaces has probably asked themselves at least once: Why can’t Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant just sit down at a round table and figure out how to work together? Surely, the world would be a better place. Yet, in reality, voice assistants resemble teenagers locked in the same room, pretending the others don’t exist. Let’s spill some digital tea on this issue. ☕🥧
The Battle for Voice: How Did We Get Here?
If you think voice assistants should complement each other like pizza and pineapple (don’t judge), tech giants have a different opinion. Each company is building its closed ecosystem to keep users locked within its own walled garden of devices and services.
Siri knows you’re using an iPhone, so it politely (and maybe passive-aggressively) suggests only Apple solutions. Alexa, designed to control your smart lights and Echo speakers, jealously guards your Amazon home ecosystem. And Google Assistant, the smartest kid in the class, juggles everything related to Android and Google services.
This brings us to the main issue: none of these assistants are willing to share. Ask Siri a question about your Amazon purchases, and she’ll look at you as if you just asked her to write a dissertation on quantum physics. And if you dare ask Google Assistant to play music via Alexa, prepare for silent treatment.
UX in a World Where Assistants “Give You the Cold Shoulder”
For users, this turns into a real headache. Picture a typical scenario: you buy some Philips Hue smart bulbs and want to control them with your voice. You have Alexa and Siri. What happens next?
- Alexa: “Of course, I can control your lights! But only if you connect them through the Amazon app.”
- Siri: “I can do it too! But first, buy a HomePod.”
- User: rolls eyes and manually flips the light switch.
This fragmentation ruins the UX because users are forced to juggle disconnected ecosystems, each with its own set of rules. Instead of feeling like technology makes life easier, people waste time configuring, switching between assistants, and figuring out “who they can talk to about lightbulbs.”
Why Don’t Voice Assistants Team Up?
The reasons behind this fragmentation are pretty straightforward and can be summed up in three words: money, control, and paranoia. If you find a couple more, let us know in the comments.
- Money
Ecosystems are massive revenue streams. The more Apple, Amazon, or Google devices you buy, the more money they make. Why share that with competitors? - Control
Access to user data is the gold of the digital age. If Google Assistant starts handing off requests to Siri, who owns the data? None of the corporations want to give up control. - Paranoia
Big tech companies compete for every inch of the market. Turning assistants into a friendly “club” is seen as a potential security risk (read: “risk of losing dominance”).
Numbers That Will Make You Laugh (or Cry)
To grasp the scale of the problem, let’s look at some stats:
- 60% of users rely on more than one voice assistant (Statista, 2023). And every single one of them has asked, “Why did I even buy this?”
- According to Voicebot.ai, only 7% of users are completely satisfied with how their assistants interact. That’s about as many people who enjoy their morning alarm.
- Around 80% of smart devices are compatible with only one or two ecosystems. In other words, if you bought a device from the “wrong brand,” you’re left to regret your choices alone.
What’s Next?
For now, it seems like voice assistants will continue living in their separate worlds. Unless, of course, a miracle happens and Apple, Google, and Amazon decide it’s time to work together (but honestly, that sounds more like a sci-fi novel idea).
Get Nick Chukreiev’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
However, there is a glimmer of hope: initiatives like Matter (a new standard for smart devices) promise to improve compatibility across ecosystems. But even they tiptoe around the topic of voice assistants like an awkward relative at a family gathering.
How to Fix This?
So, what can designers and developers do? Here are a few thoughts:
- Focus on universality. When designing smart devices, consider compatibility with multiple assistants. Or at least leave clear instructions for those who will desperately search for them on Reddit.
- Create user-friendly interfaces. If users can’t figure out which assistant can help them, it’s not their fault — it’s ours as designers.
- A little sarcasm never hurts. When assistants get confused, at least let users laugh about it. For example, imagine if Alexa said: “I can’t do that, but Siri probably could!”
In Conclusion
The fragmentation of voice interfaces is a major issue that makes users’ lives harder and UX designers more cynical. But as corporations continue their tug-of-war over users, we’re left creating solutions to make this chaos a little more bearable.
And to voice assistants, we have just one message: folks, maybe it’s time to start working together? At least for the lightbulbs.
Take care 🦫
