This reads more like, 'they're not very good' rather than 'people don't want them'. They could be hugely useful, and even in their current capacity I find are very much so.

I find it maddening that my google home, hasn't got a single bit better in the 8 years since it's release, and it's now missing some of my favourite features it had at launch. The whole market has been stagnate ever since they convinced me to put a microphone in my house, it's almost as if that was their end game.

Yeah, I feel the same way. For a small set of features that work fairly reliably it is great. Almost all of my use is:

1. Set $thing timer for $time

2. Add $thing to my grocery list.

3. Weather

4. Convert $amount to $unit.

And it is pretty great when these work, being able to do it in the kitchen without stopping whatever I am doing (example setting the dishwasher timer while putting in the soap, adding milk to the grocery list as I am pulling the last bag out of the fridge) is amazing. No wasted time and no risk of forgetting to pick up my phone and do it after I finish the current task.

But even then it is pretty unreliable. I feel like it has been getting worse over time to be honest.

> ever since they convinced me to put a microphone in my house, it's almost as if that was their end game

It was. You’re one of the few in the thread to realize that, while others are frothing at the mouth over Democrats vs Republicans or EU vs US. The Echo and like devices were never about you but about putting surveillance gear in your house and getting you to pay for it. At least on old rotary phones the cradle switch or plungers physically broke the circuit that powered the microphones. The modern cell phone and home assistant and security cameras smart televisions and smart vehicles are surveilling you at all times.

There are a lot of reasons.

Driving, working (mute, tell it to do something, unmute -> you've done something without getting up on camera), dirty hands, too comfy to get up and switch the lights off, etc.

It's also probably great for old people. I keep checking for language support since I can definitely imagine an older person being able to learn voice prompts where they're often absolutely lost on a phone. It'd also let them call someone if they've fallen somewhere around the house and can't get up.

The point is to raise a generation on them, and then they'll look at us weird for not wanting to send data back to the Amazon mothership so we can write down milk on the grocery list, a task that would be impossible without phoning Amazon.

When I'm cooking food and hands dirty, setting a timer with my voice is extremely convenient.

When I'm driving and want to switch ANC mode, it's convenient as well.

Timers, and converting those insane units US recipes use.

So people don't read (and convert) their recipes before they actually start them? That's wild.

Look at yes, convert, rarely. Partially because getting Alexa to do it is so convenient and quick. I really need to continue setting up voice for HA.

I lack trust in ai to trust them to get volumetric to weight conversions right

And yet

And yet what? The Alexa conversion grabs information from websites.

Making an urgent phone call to your spouse while rushing to your kids in the ER without taking your hands off the steering while is a fucking godsend. No matter how broken they are currently, they do have their place, and they work at least a bare minimum.

You should just drive and call later. You are putting yourself, your kids and the people around you at risk by calling someone else while driving, even when keeping your hands no the steering wheel.

I'm not a parent, but I suspect that if you're driving your kid(s) to the ER, there's a risk of having hours or minutes left with your kid(s) before they perish. So while it is riskier to call on the way, the risk of your spouse missing out on the last few moments of your child's time on Earth is actually greater.

That being said, one would hope that is a seriously unusual edge case for requiring voice commands.

(I personally find it awkward to use them, and still don't trust them to get it right, so I try not to use it ever unless I have no other choice.)

I think I'd always call an ambulance if it is what I perceive as a life threatening situation. Actually I did it once. You can't give CPR to your kids while driving. I also think calling the other parent would be way below in term of priority than making sure my kid stays alive so I think I would call only when ER specialists or at least paramedics have taken charge of them and that may be some hospital clerk doing it for me if I have to be available to give information about medical history.

It's handy for non-tech-savy people, namely the elderly. It can be used for playing music: "Alexa play X", "Alexa shutdown" is all the user needs to know.

Arguably that comes under the 'accessibility' use case that was mentioned.

People don't always have their hands free or are able to look at a screen. Not everyone is good at typing.

If you consider any advantage of voice as an input modality to be an accessibility reason, then by definition there are no non accessibility reasons to use voice.

Voice input while driving isn't an accessibility reason, but it's an important safety feature. Unfortunately Google's Assistant has only gotten worse, nearing uselessness in anything but setting driving directions.

If they worked and were local, why not?

As I pointed in another comment: because they let you keep uninterrupted focus in what you're doing.

If I'm coding and realize I didn't turn on the heating in the living room I have three choices: I can break my flow and walk there and back, I can be cold during dinner, or I can yell "turn on the heating in the living room" and have it out of my mind.

If it sounds like a luxury that's because it is. But like all luxuries it crept up on me and I only noticed once it was gone.