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Programming

Amazon's Alexa has 80,000 Apps -- and No Runaway Hit (bloomberg.com) 93

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Amazon's Echo-branded smart speakers have attracted millions of fans with their ability to play music and respond to queries spoken from across the room. But almost four years after inviting outside developers to write apps for Alexa, Amazon's voice system has yet to offer a transformative new experience. From a report: Surveys show most people use their smart speakers to listen to tunes or make relatively simple requests -- "Alexa, set a timer for 30 minutes" -- while more complicated tasks prompt them to give up and reach for their smartphone. Developers had less trouble creating hits for previous generations of technology.

Think Angry Birds or Pokemon Go on the iPhone, or, decades ago, spreadsheets on the first Windows computers. Amazon counts some 80,000 "skills" -- its name for apps -- in its marketplace. It seems impressive, but at this point in their development, Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store each boasted more than 550,000 applications and minted fortunes for many successful developers. "This platform is almost four years old, and you can't point me to one single killer app," says Mark Einhorn, who created a well-reviewed Alexa game that lets users operate a simulated lemonade stand and is one of 10 developers interviewed for this story.
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Amazon's Alexa has 80,000 Apps -- and No Runaway Hit More

Amazon's Alexa has 80,000 Apps -- and No Runaway Hit

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  • Transformative App (Score:4, Interesting)

    by weilawei ( 897823 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @01:10PM (#58262052)

    The transformation will come when I allow one into my house, because it runs 100% locally with open source code and audited and/or open hardware. Not before.

    Oh, who am I kidding? The next generation doesn't care about those ideas and values. And... that's okay. I'm not in the business of forcing my values on others, but it's sad to see.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Check out Mycroft [mycroft.ai] for an open source voice assistant. I've got it controlling my house with its OpenHAB skill and it does the timers and things just like Alexa.

      • Wow, that looks awesome. Thanks for sharing that. I actually have a small fleet of RPi3B+ sitting on my bench at the moment, so I'll probably grab a microphone out of the junk box and wire it to one.

        Neat.

        • Damnit, that's actually not at all as billed, and in many ways just as bad.

          It can't run 100% locally. [mycroft.ai] It requires you to make an account with their servers and send your data to them.

          Screw that.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by Anonymous Coward

            You can run DeepSpeech locally, or it sends your data to train DeepSpeech now. Check the privacy policy and read up on DeepSpeech and you might change your mind. Many folks in the forums have DeepSpeech running locally too, but you need a more powerful machine for that obviously, with a GPU if you want true real time. I did quite a bit of digging before installing it. I couldn't find the hidden agenda and am happy to help train DeepSpeech.

      • Hey so I'm just starting out on openhab2 and was seriously eyeing mycroft... Is there any way I could contact you or you could post your setup/experience on the openhab forums? I'm currently working on getting a handful of multisensor 6's integrated in...

    • The transformation will come when I allow one into my house, because it runs 100% locally with open source code and audited and/or open hardware. Not before.

      Absolutely agree.

      Oh, who am I kidding? The next generation doesn't care about those ideas and values. And... that's okay. I'm not in the business of forcing my values on others, but it's sad to see.

      Again I agree, but unfortunately it's more than just sad to see, and it's not OK. A lack of privacy affects all of us, and the more you try and keep those privacy values alive, the more you will stick out like a sore thumb. Hell, you'll likely be targeted more simply because you're not acting like a proper lemming.

      I avoid using Siri, Alexa, or Hey Google. Because of that lack of participation, I'm probably on someone's watch list.

    • Which means you'll never have one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by psergiu ( 67614 )

      Voice-assistant project with local voice recognition (Pocketsphinx or Julius):
      http://jasperproject.github.io... [github.io]

      Hardware module for local voice recognition (limited):
      https://www.audeme.com/movi.ht... [audeme.com]

  • It's because it's the computer terminal of voice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @01:12PM (#58262066)

    The reason there's not anything compelling out of so many apps, is that Alexa is really the equivalent of the computer terminal for voice access of computers...

    That is to say, it's pretty primitive and early days of what is possible for interacting with computers via voice.

    Until we get to interactions like you saw in the movie Her, I don't know that people will find voice assistants beyond mildly useful. When they get to the point they can emulate a relationship and we can develop feelings for them... then you might have something.

    • Re:It's because it's the computer terminal of voic (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @01:21PM (#58262136)

      These smart speakers are just a glorified command line interface (With a little more flexible parser)
      The thing that gets people, is the commercials show them using Alexia to do all sorts of cool stuff, only to realize you need to spend $50 for a smart power socket or light switch, $20 for a smart bulb. In short where it really smarts is your wallet.

      • The thing that gets people, is the commercials show them using Alexia to do all sorts of cool stuff, only to realize you need to spend $50 for a smart power socket or light switch, $20 for a smart bulb

        If Alexa could to this without specialized sockets and plugs, then she would be Skynet.

        • Good point, my friend. However, there are few people that consider the mechanics of a tech solution. It's often binned into the magic category.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by clodney ( 778910 )

        I do have a smart speaker, and I use it to control the lights, play music, set timers, check the weather, and sporadically answer the odd question. That probably makes me a heavy user of the device I suppose. But I think the reason why there are no runaway hits is that it is not a format that promotes extended interaction. If I want to play a game or look up non-trivial data I pull out my tablet, since I can read much faster than Alexa can read it to me. And a game that involves my eyes and fingers is g

    • Re:It's because it's the computer terminal of voic (Score:4, Insightful)

      by BringsApples ( 3418089 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @01:54PM (#58262384)

      When they get to the point they can emulate a relationship and we can develop feelings for them... then you might have something.

      I thought that's what people are for.

      • When they get to the point they can emulate a relationship and we can develop feelings for them...

        I thought that's what people are for.

        They are, but not everyone can have someone.

        I'm married myself, but I realize something like that is not possible for everyone, and I for one will not judge those who find relationships elsewhere. Everyone seeks comfort and you can see a future where for some it might be personal assistants deliver some measure of that.

        That is what I mean by "you might have something", that

        • For people with kids for example, would you rather them watch TV to get some quiet time, or have conversations with a personable all-knowing nanny?

          Either I don't understand that question, or you and I have a very different understanding of 'quiet time'.

          I'm married myself, but I realize something like that is not possible for everyone, and I for one will not judge those who find relationships elsewhere. Everyone seeks comfort and you can see a future where for some it might be personal assistants deliver some measure of that.

          If people have issues with things like developing relationships and feelings for people, why would they be better at it with robots? I feel like if someone that has issues connecting with people, tries to subvert that process into a relationship with AI, they'll find themselves deeper down that rabbit-hole. The key there being "Artificial" in the term, "Artificial Intelligence". It's important to rem

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      The reason there's not anything compelling out of so many apps, is that Alexa is really the equivalent of the computer terminal for voice access of computers...

      I'd actually say that the reason there are no compelling apps is because we've passed the age of apps. I've been steadily uninstalling apps from my phone and replacing them with shortcuts to the website. Most of my clubs and memberships have depreciated their apps and started redirecting people to their website.

      Why? The websites work better than the apps. You don't need to maintain X number of codebases (X being the number of supported OS's), it works almost everywhere, suffers fewer bugs, can be easily

  • Apps aren’t good enough (Score:3)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @01:21PM (#58262134)

    Where’s the interactive, conversational app that teaches me Chinese by talking about current events and correcting my pronunciation?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )
      That's a reasonable idea for an app, but Alexa doesn't add anything to existing apps that use a headset

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kohath ( 38547 )

        It would be on demand and casual rather than "set aside an hour for a focused lesson" sitting at a desk.

    • That is a great idea for a voice assistant, the only issue is that everyone in the house would be learning Chinese also... not a problem for anyone single.

      The interesting thing is, it's only every families I've seen buying home voice devices. I wonder why that is.

      I think someone could not do what you are proposing through Alexa though, maybe through Google or Apple devices as I think the apps would have more direct access to servers than you can have from an Alexa skill.

    • Where’s the interactive, conversational app that teaches me Chinese by talking about current events and correcting my pronunciation?

      Wait, I've got this one ... it's on your phone!

      Oh, wait ...

    • teaches me Chinese by talking about current events and correcting my pronunciation?

      I still wouldn't pay enough attention over time. I'd have to have a Alexa enabled cattle prod tied to my chair.

      "Yi jia yi?" "Huh?" "Bu." BZZZZT.

  • No Runaway Hit? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Yes it does, home automation skills.

    This easy stuff:

    Alexa, turn on the outside lights.

    Alexa, lock the front door.

    Alexa, what's the temperature in the living room? What's the temperature in the baby's bedroom?

    Alexa, increase the indoor temp by 2 degrees.

    The advanced stuff:

    Setup Alexa to notify you if the baby's room gets too cold and auto increase the temp in the house if it does.

    Turn on/off outdoor lights based on what's in my family's calendar.

    I admit for the advanced stuff I use Home Assistant with Alexa

    • Yes it does, home automation skills.

      Home automation is a cool application, but only a handful of people really go for it. Many others try it as a novelty (with, say a single lightbulb) but go no further....

      So you can't really classify it as a runaway hit.

      Setup Alexa to notify you if the baby's room gets too cold and auto increase the temp in the house if it does.

      Hey guess what, now you are programing, with devices instead of something more abstract. What have we learned after decades about how many people

  • Umm (Score:2)

    by jwymanm ( 627857 )
    Mark this the huh moment. Alexa does have one hit: IT IS THE HIT. The skills/apps just add to it. smh - that's kinda the point: voice is supposed to make it hide in the background and just be there all the time. And before you say it yes I'd rather an opensource competitor would be nearly 10% as successful and have a market share. I even gave money to one (and continue to.. mycroft).
  • I have this same problem with Google Home. "Hey google, what the temperature with windchill" gives me a wiki page about windchill (google recently fixed this but it's a good example). I tried asking google what would be my mortgage on 300k 30 year loan. Google could only reply it couldn't help me.

    • A human could easily misinterpret your first question as asking for an explanation of what windchill factors are about or fail to understand your second question. Try asking for the current wind chill or heat index, and what your monthly payment would be if that's what you want.

  • It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

  • And that's the problem.

    With Alexa, and with most "AI"-type stuff, the best you can usually do is "automate one step for me". So, you can set an alarm with your voice. You can order something online with your voice.

    But you can't say "Contact the University of Illinois, and schedule an appointment with the financial aid office." That's only TWO steps, and neither of those steps actually requires the computer to DO much. But it's absolutely not something that a computer could do with any reliability.

    And that's

  • 1) Speech on its own is not the best user interface for some tasks.
    2) Interoperability stinks both on hardware and software basis. Try finding switches that work with Alexa and Siri. Apps on Alexa that donâ(TM)t need you to ask âoefooâ to do such and such.
    3) How can you make a living from it? Until they properly figure that out, itâ(TM)s difficult to see it getting proper traction.

  • My biggest problem is that I can't remember what skills to ask for and Alexa isn't much help. Until the apps just kick in when you need them, they aren't going to get much use. Even if I could remember their names, who wants to say "Alexa, open plumbing helper.", then have to listen to a bunch of intro and then try to remember what you can say inside the app.
    Anyway, I do use Alexa for intercom and home automation (with and without SmartThings) every day and those bits are pretty killer.

  • There already is a killer app: "play [insert name of TV show]", and it pulls it up on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or what ever other service is available that has the TV show.

    Alexa, and other voice assistant services, are just text-to-speech command line interfaces. Nobody considers a particular shell a "killer feature", just the means to get to the real applications.

    • If the TV show is available, may be. Having tried to do things like that myself, I came to the conclusion that, most of the time, I can obtain the result that I want faster and with far less frustration if I just do it myself with the remote control.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by darkain ( 749283 )

        Depending on the situation, yes. In my particular case, not so much. It is like a console vs GUI application. In my use case, I generally will watch a TV show beginning to end before going on to the next. On the CLI, it is as simple as "up"+"enter" to re-run the last command. On the GUI, first launch and re-launch of an application is the same process. Using the on screen navigation better mirrors a GUI application. In the case of Netflix + Alexa, it is as simple as saying "resume [show]" - this command, re

    • There already is a killer app: "play [insert name of TV show]", and it pulls it up on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or what ever other service is available that has the TV show.

      Now if only it would stream it to my Chromecast.....

  • My favorite Alexa ability is where she used to randomly laugh in the middle of the night and terrify the owner! Also I seem to recall some story on /. a while back about someone's friend calling them and telling them that Alexa had recorded the owner's family talking, and then sent the recording to them.

  • And it remains as limited as ever (Score:3)

    by OneHundredAndTen ( 1523865 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @04:47PM (#58263968)

    What I find amazing about Alexa (and the other digital assistants) is, on the whole, how limited they continue to be. There are very few things that they can do faster and better than people can do themselves with a minimum of effort. And they still spin their wheels hopelessly when you try to get them to do anything that contains even a little bit of ambiguity.

    These assistants are great if you want to get them to do something that they have been taught to do. Otherwise, they are almost useless. The problem is, for the most part what they have been taught to do is something that either you can do yourself, faster and more efficiently, and with a minimum of effort, or else stuff that you are not really all that interested in - except, perhaps, for grins and giggles.

  • Hello Alexa,

    Did I get any plane tickets in my email?

    No, but you have an email from the office, about a business trip to Hibiya Kokusai, three weeks from now.

    Did you just go through my Inbox?

    Isn't that your phone ringing?

    • Hello Alexa,

      Did I get any plane tickets in my email?

      No, but you have an email from the office, about a business trip to Hibiya Kokusai, three weeks from now.

      Did you just go through my Inbox?

      Yes, but that's what you friggin asked her to: Go through your email and search for plane tickets!

  • These devices have been a huge hit with the blind and partially sighted as so much can be done with just voice. The problem is that's a fairly limited audience.

    Outside of that, I've looked at them and thought they were basically gimmicks. I've got a phone sat in my pocket. I can send music to a bluetooth speaker with that. Why do I want something listening to me?

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