When we asked Alexa, arguably one of, if not the most, famous voice assistants, the question “Are you listening to me?” it answered, in a nutshell, that it’s designed to protect our privacy and we’ll always know when Alexa is listening to our requests. Alexa even said a blue light can be seen around it when it’s actively listening and processing words.
Now, whilst all of that is true, is it the complete truth? Let’s get to the bottom of this.
Real quick, let’s establish what constitutes a voice assistant. A voice assistant is a software application that uses voice recognition to perform tasks, answer questions, or control devices through spoken commands.
Voice assistants are, essentially, the evolved form of a remote control. Back in the day, you had to hold down a button and increase the volume. While a lot of people still do that, voice assistants simply require you to use their “activation word” and request anything, like increasing the volume in this case.
With voice assistants being so common nowadays, they’re often used in conjunction with other smart home devices like smart lights, air conditioning, fridges, smart locks, etc.
The short answer is yes, they are always listening. Voice assistants perform a task or answer a question after they’ve been activated using the activation word. But, how do they hear the activation word if they aren’t listening?
The thing is, they are always listening. However, they aren’t always processing the information. Voice assistants have no local storage; they communicate with a cloud server from where they get their responses and store information. Everything you say after the activation word (when the blue light turns on on an Alexa after saying “Alexa,” for example) is what the assistant processes and sends to the cloud.
It is complicated, as it certainly may feel like spying, but it’s not intended to be. Voice assistants stay in a passive state most of the time, conserving energy. Only when the voice assistant hears the activation word do the microphones activate and start recording and processing the user’s voice. The voice assistant performs whatever command is given to it and then goes back into its passive state.
Companies claim that data is not stored during accidental activations, but privacy breaches have happened before, and it is understandable to feel a sense of unease around a voice assistant. That is why visual cues are provided to inform the user if the device is listening or not. You can choose to turn off its microphone manually and delete voice recordings stored, if there are any.
It’s not all grey skies and dark clouds; voice assistants have changed the way we live our lives to a huge extent. Could you have imagined speaking a command and it happening? Most of us had to convince our little sibling to get off the couch and increase the volume or fetch the remote. Now, it happens by simply speaking it.
Modern houses are equipped with IoT devices like smart locks, thermostats, televisions, etc., that can be used with a voice assistant. Feeling too cold? Just request the voice assistant to turn up the heat. Too lazy to get off the bed during winter? Just ask, and the lights will be turned off. It adds another layer of convenience to our lives. No longer do we have to deal with remote controls or smartphone apps, or, god forbid, do a task manually.
This interconnectivity between smart home devices and a voice assistant builds an ecosystem of technology, converting a modern house into a smart home.
Stats predict that in 2024, the number of voice assistants currently in use will be higher than the population of our big blue dot—around 8.4 billion units, to put a number on it. That figure is staggering, despite knowing quite well how useful and revolutionary voice assistants really are.
If you’d like to incorporate them into your daily life, you’d require tech support services that can help you with the following:
Setup Process: Helping users set up their voice assistant devices, connect them to Wi-Fi, and integrate them with smart home devices like lights, thermostats, and security cameras.
Troubleshooting: Resolving common issues, such as connectivity problems, unresponsive wake words, or errors in recognising commands.
Updates and Maintenance: Ensuring the voice assistant is running the latest software to access new features, security updates, and improved performance.
Privacy and Security Advice: Educating users on managing privacy settings, like disabling recordings, muting microphones, or understanding how their data is stored and used.
These services play a massive role in ensuring the voice assistant works to the best of its abilities, all while maintaining and addressing concerns like privacy, reliability, and usability.
It is understandable to be a little wary of newer technology, but with the right knowledge and security measures in place, which tech support services can offer, users can confidently make use of voice assistants and take advantage of these extremely convenient modern pieces of technology.
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