Google Assistant : Now on a BILLION devices 😲

[simonb]

Google Assistant will soon be on a billion devices, and feature phones are next

This is around 10x the number of Alexa devices in the world, which is very impressive.

It feels like we’re going to hear more about Google Assistant over the course of CES…

[nickh]

As an iOS man, I’m a bit gutted Google assistant isn’t baked into iOS (or, Siri was actually as good).

But I’m not sure you can compare Google Assistant (which comes on Android devices), to the Alexa hardware Amazon has been selling.

I’d be interested to see the comparison between Google hardware devices (excluding phones), and Alexa devices (I reckon Alexa still leads this comparison).

[BritishLibrary]

Just to highlight the scale of difference between a Million and a Billion - (and because I love this little factoid)

A Million seconds is 11.5 days.

A Billion seconds is 31.5 years!

That’s a lot of Google Assistant.

[simonb]

You can still use Google Assistant on iOS. In fact, with Siri shortcuts, you can even trigger it, although the syntax is clunky - “Hey Siri, tell Google Assistant to do X”

I’m not sure there’s a difference - you can bet that Amazon would be using the same figures if there were a meaningful amount of Alexa-enabled Kindle/Fire devices in the world, but there aren’t, because their attempt at a phone was a catastrophic failure.

Google’s range began to outsell Amazon’s range almost a year ago.

Google Home speakers outsold Amazon’s Echo line for the first time last quarter

I would also bet on some subtle tweaks to Android Q that make Assistant even more prominent on phones.

[jwhiterz (Jack)]

It was quite clear google was going to win this race, I just hope Alexa can keep up as competition.

Siri was left behind a while ago now.

[nickh]

@simonb

You can still use Google Assistant on iOS. In fact, with Siri shortcuts, you can even trigger it, although the syntax is clunky - “Hey Siri, tell Google Assistant to do X”

Yeah, it’s the same with the 3rd party shortcuts - I’ve just never found it natural.

“Hey Siri, in “things”, remind me to add XYZ” - It’s just… not quite there.

@simonb

I’m not sure there’s a difference - you can bet that Amazon would be using the same figures if there were a meaningful amount of Alexa-enabled Kindle/Fire devices in the world, but there aren’t, because their attempt at a phone was a catastrophic failure.

Oh, 100%

But I guess my point was more that, you could easily have a heading of:

“Siri is now on 1 Billion devices” (which it is probably not far away from). But that doesn’t actually show the strength of the assistant.

I’d still bet that there are more Alexa speakers out there, than Google hubs (excluding phones).

I was very close to getting a Google hub over Christmas - But I’m not bought into the “voice assistant” stuff yet!

[simonb]

@nickh

I was very close to getting a Google hub over Christmas - But I’m not bought into the “voice assistant” stuff yet!

They often go on sale for less than £30. At that price, there’s really no reason not to!

I even got one for my Aunt (she’s in her 70’s) for Xmas.
She has been very impressed by the fact that it can speak both English and Hindi back to back, just like she does

[nickh]

@simonb

She has been very impressed by the fact that it can speak both English and Hindi back to back, just like she does

I wonder if it’ll cope with baby cries and dog barks whilst asking a question!

Maybe I’ll get one just to test that!

Or maybe I just need to embrace voice assistants in general, and actually start using one full stop!

Just… not Siri