Smart-home devices are on the verge of mainstream adoption, and with that comes the opportunity for marketers to gain deeper insights about their audiences though user data. In our “Smart Homes 2020” report, we looked at how marketers use smart-home technology to integrate brands with the internet of things (IoT) universe and how consumers may react to hyperpersonalized advertising inside the home.

Amazon Alexa and Google Home hold the largest market share among smart home apps in the US. The duopoly makes up about half of all smart home app downloads in the US, per Sensor Tower’s July 2021 analysis, with Amazon Alexa at 28% and Google Home at 26% in 2020. Other players, like LG, are slowly gaining market share. What’s Changing that Will Impact This Forecast?

Pandemic-related stay-at-home mandates have accelerated OTT messaging app adoption in most parts of the world. In the US, however, alternative means of communicating, including Zoom and FaceTime, have hindered usage of OTT messaging services.

While some US consumers are warming to the idea of making voice-based purchases via smart speakers, the number of those doing so is smaller than initially estimated. In our latest forecast on smart speaker users, we lowered our outlook for the number of smart speaker buyers (people making a purchase via a smart speaker) as well as the number of smart speaker users (people who use smart speakers for any purpose).

Privacy concerns, along with customer dissatisfaction with the experience, have led to slower adoption. After the adult user base rose by 11.8% in 2020, it increased by only 2.9% in 2021. Growth will decelerate further this year, to 2.6%. Smart speaker commerce has not taken off in a significant way, and there’s ample room for growth in voice shopping and buying.

However, internet users are already more likely to use a voice assistant than to own a smartwatch, smart wristband, or smart home device. Some 22.0% of those polled in H1 2021 had used a voice tool such as Siri or Cortana, or a smart speaker, to search for information during the prior week, and 15.7% had used voice to complete an action or task. Penetration was greater in affluent households.

This report explores our latest forecasts for US voice assistant, smartphone voice assistant, and smart speaker users, and provides additional analysis about trends shaping the market.

Voice assistants, too, are more popular with younger people. In the wider sample, 21.6% had used voice commands in the week before. Among internet users ages 16 to 34, that share was nearly 27%. A similar proportion of higher-income respondents had used a voice-activated app or device, as well. Affluent internet users are leading the adoption of smartwatches, smart wristbands, and smart home devices.

By comparison, Facebook’s Portal has hardly any market share, holding just 4% of US smart speaker owners in 2020, per Hub Research.

Hey, Siri, show voice assistant user stats

More than a quarter (26.2%) of internet users polled in H1 2021 said they had used voice command tools such as Siri or Cortana, or a voice assistant such as Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Home, in the prior week. Some 19.0% had used voice to find information, while 15.6% had used a voice assistant to complete an action, such as playing a song or placing a grocery order.

Biometrics are poised for wider adoption: Consumers aren’t happy with the status quo for identity verification—and most of those who tried newer methods liked them, according to a PYMNTS and Pindrop survey.

As the medium gained popularity with listeners, consumer adoption of smart speakers and audio streaming services grew as well. In 2019, the number of US smart speaker users grew nearly 22% year over year to more than 73 million, and in the same year, US digital audio listeners surpassed 206 million. Promotions, like Spotify giving away Google Home Mini smart speakers to subscribers, aided this growth.

Voice assistants are taking longer to gain acceptance, though. Just 6.8% of those polled in H1 2021 said they had used a voice-activated tool or device to find information in the prior week, while 9.3% had used a voice command to complete an action.

Its voice assistant, Alexa, has a high adoption rate, allowing voice commerce to grow naturally for the online retailer. The Amazon Prime loyalty program discounts subscription purchases, making shopping for essentials easy. Additionally, given its market dominance and the sheer volume of sales it powers, Amazon has access to a lot of customer data.

And Amazon’s HIPAA-compliant Alexa could be used to make appointments or to monitor health. 4. In June, Amazon launched a new functionality for its Halo wearable that measures movement and flexibility via a smartphone camera and cloud-based AI—but privacy concerns are still limiting consumer adoption.