Voice commands were on the rise throughout the year for Josh.ai customers, perhaps as the Delta and Omicron variants to COVID-19 kept smart home customers at home, using their systems more than ever. In an attempt at help to understand where homeowners are finding value and success with custom integration-level voice control, the Josh.ai team compiled its top 10 voice commands from 2021.
While there were millions of voice commands issued, the most frequently used voice commands (or questions), according to Josh.ai’s research, are the most “reliable, intuitive, and valuable” commands that homeowners find in using their home automation systems. As a result, Josh.ai recommends thinking about these commands specifically when introducing a client to voice control, designing a system, and making sure homeowners will find daily value from their system.
- “Watch Apple TV”
The tenth most common voice command in 2021 was “Watch Apple TV,” which, for the first time, overtook the next most common video command of “Watch Netflix.” Both of these commands seem to reveal that while deep linking is exciting to demo, most clients want to walk in a room, ask for Apple TV or Netflix, and then grab a remote or use the Josh app to navigate. It’s worth noting that while Josh.ai sees a tremendous amount of Roku in their projects, the command “Watch Apple TV” is still more popular than “Watch Roku.” It’s also worth noting that the location isn’t part of these commands because with Josh.ai the devices are room aware.
- “What’s the weather?”
The ninth most prevalent voice command of 2021 was the ever popular, “What’s the Weather” request. While this isn’t a home automation command, it’s one of the more frequent voice commands that clients give and good to remind new clients of the value. You can also ask for the weather in a particular location, such as “What’s the weather in Aspen” and you can also ask questions like, “Is it going to rain?”
- “Turn on the fan”
Fan control is new to the top 10 list this year – specifically, the commands “turn on the fan” and “turn off the fan.” While not the most common smart home device to control, it seems this use case has growth, either because more dealers are controlling smart fans with home automation systems, or the value of asking to control them by voice has become stronger.
- “I’m home”
The first scene command to hit the Josh.ai top 10 list this year is “I’m home,” followed shortly by “I’m leaving” and “Goodbye,” which effectively trigger the same actions. This command reflects the trend in using scenes to turn the home on when you return or shut the home down when you leave. Josh.ai recommends adding these scenes to any new client project as they add high value and are the easiest way to quickly transform the entire home.
- “Turn off the music”
Next up is Josh.ai’s top music control command, “Turn off the music” and “Stop the music.” A large majority of systems include music control, and while it’s cool to ask for a particular album or playlist, the voice command to stop the music is far and away the most frequently issued.
- “Close the shades”
In the fifth spot of most popular voice commands for 2021 is shades control, with “Close the shades” slightly more popular than “Open the shades.” While many shades can be controlled to a particular position or stopped, the simple “open” and “close” commands are the most common and Josh.ai sees many of its customers utilizing voice control for automated window coverings.
- “What time is it?”
In the fourth spot of most popular voice commands is the second non-device command: “What time is it?” This is a command often given when multitasking, particularly when getting ready in the morning.
- “Goodnight”
The most popular scene command, coming in as the third most popular command in 2021, is “Goodnight” followed shortly by “Good Morning.” These two commands are unlikely to surprise any integrator as they take advantage of the orchestrated value of the integrated smart home. A simple “Good morning” command that turns on lights, opens shades, plays some music, and turns the TV on to the weather channel can be impressive. It’s interesting that the “Goodnight” command wins out, suggesting people are more confident and find more value asking to shut everything down, often after crawling into bed and being done for the day.
- “Turn off the TV”
The second most common voice command of 2021 is “Turn off the TV” followed shortly by “Turn on the TV.” This is interesting as TV use by voice typically trails behind many other devices. But, the fact that more TVs are controllable, Josh can work with Control4, Crestron, and others, and TVs exist in many rooms that homeowners occupy, it makes sense that this is a frequent request. Similar to prior trends, the “turn off” frequency out numbers the “turn on” variation, suggesting again people use voice more frequently to shut things down.
- “Turn off the lights”
And taking the win for the number-one spot of all voice commands issued last year is “Turn off the lights” followed shortly by “Turn on the lights.” This is no surprise, as connected lighting is in pretty much every room of the home, and it shows the value in whole home control. Not providing a room name is most common as Josh is room aware, but when asking to control a specific room the kitchen is the most commonly controlled by voice. Lighting is a fast-growing area of the smart home with human-centric lighting and RGB options available. In 2021 Josh.ai and Lutron partnered up to introduce an integrated voice control + keypad product, taking advantage of this frequent use case.
What are your most used voice commands? Josh.ai wants to know. Tag #joshdotai and let everyone know what trends you’re seeing.
