When Alladin rubbed the chirag, Genie gave him three wishes. All he had to do was ask the Genie to do something, and he would happily oblige.
Now, what if we told you that you don't need any Genie or magic to turn your wishes into commands!
Confused, right?
We're talking about the new-age Voice Assistants!
But before we jump into explaining what Voice Assistants are and what they can do for you, let me tell you a story about my recent encounter with these smart assistants.
It was only last week when I went to my nephew's birthday party, and they were playing the old school musical chairs. He was eliminated after a few rounds, making him super angry and vengeful. He thought he was wronged and cheated, so he wanted to know who was controlling the music. To quite his surprise, the music was being played, shuffled, and stopped by a voice assistant.
What is a Voice Assistant?
To put it simply, it is a digital assistant which takes your commands through voice! Think of Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Google's Assistant. They either come pre-installed on your devices or come in the form of dedicated IoT speakers.
They are web-connected software tools that listen to your command, interpret them and take the required action! They make our lives way easier and convenient by making their way into our lives and homes.
There are many everyday devices that are now powered by Voice Assistants. Besides being a constant companion in our phones and televisions, Voice Assistants are now rapidly being integrated into most devices we have at our disposal. Earphones (both wired and wireless), headphones, and smartwatches are also being integrated with dedicated controls to directly access Voice Assistants without picking up your phones or laptops.
Let's have a look at a few ways in which Voice Assistants are revolutionising our daily lives and making them way more cooler:
Say Goodbye to the Screen
They are VOICE Assistants. They use a speech interface to interact with you! But what does it mean for you?
It sets you free from using a display screen or even the prerequisite need of punching in your wishes through text or reading the result online!
It is one of the most effortless ways to get your things done!
It's based on the age-old formula that we've always been taught. If you wanna know something, ask for it! This makes it one of the most effortless and hassle-free ways of getting things done! Imagine you are driving and want to call up your mom but cannot reach out to your phone to dial. No problem-o, just activate your phone's voice assistant and ask it to "call mom", and viola!
Your Personal DJ
Having a house party? Turn your smart speakers into your personal DJ! All you need to do is say the magic words, i.e 'Your assistant's wake word + your command'. Here's an example:
"Hey XYZ, play my party playlist"!
And, you are set! You can even give commands to pause or skip a song, and even control the volume using voice commands.
If you enjoy the live banter of radio, you can also ask your smart speaker to tune into a specific radio station and control your playback!
Get All Updates
Say goodbye to turning on the TV or scrolling through news apps to know about top headlines or weather updates!
Just say, "What's the news?", and your Voice Assistant will inform you about the recent updates. Similarly, you can even ask it about "what's going to be the weather this Sunday?"
And it will tell you if you should be carrying sunscreen or an umbrella!
You can also ask your Voice Assistant to tell you the ETA to reach home. And you will get an estimated answer without punching in your location manually anywhere!
Your Personal Assistant
Your voice assistant can do it all! From putting up reminders to sending simple mails to printing requests! You can use it to set alarms and timers to increase productivity and remind you of important stuff which you might forget otherwise.
Instead of making manual invites, you can ask your Voice Assistant to book an appointment with your dentist this weekend. It will ask you about your preferred time and date and then plunk it on your calendar!
Make Shopping Easy
How many times have you gone to a supermarket and missed getting the items that you wanted? Even when you have jotted your shopping ist on a piece of paper, there are chances that you forgot to carry that piece of paper only! Irritating, right?
Well, switch to Voice-Activated home assistants!
It's super easy. If you are running low on paper towels, just say, "Put paper towels on the shopping list". You can keep on adding the items, and once you go to the store, open your shopping list and start checking off the items. This is also helpful for people who are not at the store with you but come across some last-minute item they want. They can get that item added to the list by simply speaking to your Voice Assistant!
Go Random
Having a random conversation with your Voice Assistant can be absolutely fun! You can make it tell you a joke or ask about anything random, like, "Who came first, the chicken or the egg?". You will be delighted to hear its witty responses and find it quite amusing!
Well, we could still go on. But I think you've had enough of us already. Go, explore your phone's Voice Assistant and have a fun time delegating all your tasks!
