Multi-user support coming to Google Home

BI Intelligence

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Google will bring multi-user functionality to the Home, in its latest effort create a highly personalized end-user experience. This means that the smart home device will be able to recognize the voice of the user speaking to it, and tailor its responses to that user based on their past search history or other preferences.

Though Google hasn’t formally announced the upcoming functionality, a message in the Google Home mobile application stated that “multiple users are now supported” — this isn’t true just yet, but it does indicate that the functionality could be available soon, according to Ars Technica.

Here are some examples of how this could benefit users:

Calendar appointments. In a home where multiple people use Google Calendar, for example, a user would be able to add an appointment to their calendar by voicing a command to the Home; the device would be able to recognize the user’s voice and make adjustments to the calendar.
E-commerce purchases. The Google Home allows users to purchase goods from Target, Whole Foods, and Bed Bath & Beyond via voice command. This new feature means multiple users who shop using the device won’t have to manually sign off when they want to switch to their own store accounts.
Checking stock prices. If linked with multiple Google Finance accounts, the Home could check the prices of stocks each user has on their watch list.

This sort of personalization will set the Google Home apart from competing Echo products, at least for now. Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant can link to user’s calendar and online purchase history, but it only supports the data from a single user — the one whose Prime account information is linked to the device. For example, an individual could look up their own purchase history on Amazon on their Echo, but the same user cannot do this on their friend’s Echo. This is not a particularly complex feature, so Amazon could eventually add it to Alexa.

A personalized user experience is critical to Google’s larger strategy of positioning the device as a utility rather than a novelty. Many consumers still view smart home speakers, like the Google Home and the Amazon Echo, as a novelty with no set, defined use — 18% of US respondents to a February 2017 Business Insider survey said they don’t see any benefits to using a smart home speaker. If users are offered a more personalized experience with the Google Home, they may start to view the device as less of a cool, futuristic novelty and more of a product that can control essential aspects of their lives.

As consumers increasingly use the Google Home, the company could bolster its monetization efforts. More frequent use of the Home means Google can serve its users more ads. The company can also collect and analyze more data on its user base, enabling it to support more personalized ads. While this might not drastically increase the revenue of an already massively profitable ad division — Google made $22 billion from its AdSense division in Q4 2016 alone — it would diversify the sources from which the company can derive ad revenue.

Not that long ago, many home-appliance and consumer-electronics makers were gearing up for what they thought would soon be a rapidly growing market for smart home devices.

The instant popularity of the Nest thermostat, introduced in 2011, seemed to confirm their hopes. But those expectations were dashed in the coming years as the market for connected home devices later stagnated.

Even with these challenges, many of the biggest consumer technology companies are now moving into the smart home market. For example, Apple, which recently released its self-installed smart home ecosystem, called the Apple Home, traditionally doesn’t move into a market until it’s very mature and only when it can release a perfected product. Further, Google this fall launched the Google Home and its companion ecosystem, hoping to jump into the voice-activated smart home speaker market, which Amazon currently dominates with its Echo product line.

Nicholas Shields, research associate for BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the self-installed smart home that examines the demographics of the average smart home device owner and discuss why current smart home device owners are appealing to tech companies. The report also examines the plans of various tech giants in the smart home market and discuss their monetization strategies, and makes suggestions for how these companies can position themselves to make their products and devices more appealing to the mass market.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Tech companies primarily enter the market to enhance a core revenue stream or service, while device makers desire to collect data to improve their products and prevent costly recalls.
We forecast there will be $4.8 trillion in aggregate IoT investment between 2016 and 2021.
These companies are also seeking to create an early-mover advantage for themselves, where they gain an advantage by this head start on adoption.
Major barriers to mass market adoption that still must overcome include technological fragmentation and persistently high device prices.

In full, the report:

Details the market strategy of prominent tech companies and device makers, and analyzes why which ones are best poised to succeed once adoption ticks up.
Offers insight into current ownership through an exclusive survey from BI Intelligence and analyzes what demographics will drive adoption moving forward.
Explains in detail which companies are poised to succeed in the market in the coming years as adoption increases and mass market consumers begin to purchase smart home devices.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT, choose one of these options:

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of smart homes.