Talk to your home, and it may now hear you. Voice control is the next game changer with smart-home tech. In fact, it may be just the piece that fuels higher adoption of smart-home gadgets.
“By simply saying aloud what they want to happen with their locks, lights, thermostats, and security system, consumers spend more time living and less time managing,” says Jeff Lyman, chief marketing office for Vivint Smart Home, which integrates with Amazon's Echo. “The experience is pretty magical.”
Many households say they are already using voice-controlled smart-home tech, and many more want to adopt it soon,
according to a new survey from Coldwell Banker Real Estate and Vivint Smart Home. Coldwell Banker is releasing the survey results at CES 2017, the consumer electronic trade show taking place this week in Las Vegas.
Seventy-two percent of the nearly 1,000 consumers surveyed who already have smart-home products — those that are controlled remotely by a smartphone, tablet, computer, or separate automatic system within the home — say they want voice control, according to the survey. Further, 48 percent of Americans with smart-home products say they already have voice-control capability.
The majority of consumers say they want to use their voice to control entertainment gadgets in their home. Fifty-seven percent of survey respondents who own smart-home products with voice control use it to control entertainment, such as playing music or controlling their TV or speaker systems. Also, homeowners are using voice-activated tech to control the lighting and security in their households.
“We’re not surprised that so many Americans want to be able to use their voice to control smart-home products, because it makes for a much more intuitive user experience,” says Sean Blankenship, chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “We’re hearing directly from our agents that their clients are demanding voice control to make their smart-home experience more seamless.”
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey for REALTOR® Magazine Daily News
