by Edward Muldrew

The Alexa skill store comes with an abundance of ‘apps’ for users to choose from. With estimates in 2019 stating over 100,000 apps. However consumers of voice assistants typically keep coming back to the same use-cases. Which include listening to music, answering simple questions and checking whether reports.

Which leads me to one of the biggest problems voice developers and users have. That the majority of users don’t touch third-party skills which have been developed for Alexa.  The app ecosystem remains limited in terms of mainstream adoption. I will go through and dissect the reasons for this…

Brand Presence

One of the reasons for the lack of uptake in voice skills is that the lack of big brand names having skills to try out on the app store results in a lack of demand. Think of it like a supermarket but without coca-cola or mars bars. As a customer you are less likely to visit that store or even browse around its products.

I use this analogy as it represents what skill stores are like at the moment. A mobile phone is a blank canvas devoid of value until we add our favourite apps like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Then the phone has functionality, value and use.

https://thisweekinvoice.substack.com/p/dont-stop-believing-part-1-of-4

This article by thisweekinvoice exemplifies how the fortune 50 companies are not utilising voice eco-systems. The result ends up in bloated app marketplace, filled with many sub-par efforts from indie developers. This causes problems in discoverability. A user who tries a 3^rd party app who does not have a well-executed experience and quickly turn off users from trying other apps.

Discoverability

The discoverability of apps is one of the main issues developers and consumers have. Brands can leverage what they already have established in other channels by targeting an already engaged social audience. Whilst the lesser-known indie developer may have to rely on word of mouth.

A future landscape where brands are given the opportunity to earn and ultimately pay for placement isn’t so outlandish . Alexa can now take a consumer request or question like, “Alexa, how do I get a wine stain out of my shirt?” and direct it to an appropriate third-party skill. This doesn’t give much hope for the amateur developers pursuing a side-hustle. The best sources I have come to is engaging within the voice community and posting on forums. As well as this I have created small video promo’s of my apps in a bid to develop attraction. Although it is immeasurable to see the tangible impact this has had on users.

“The biggest hurdle right now is discoverability which in turn leads to engagement and retention issues. This was the same for mobile before the App Store allowed us to discover new apps. We need the same for voice,” Nicole Quinn, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lack of app ratings

Another major problem is the lack of user ratings. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise due to the poor uptake for user adoption. However app ratings are an integral part of app marketplaces. They help guide a user’s decision to use an app.

Jess Williams, co-founder of Opearlo, explains

“This doesn’t surprise me. Not only is it a multi step process for a user to review a skill through the alexa mobile app, it’s not possible to do so through the medium in which the skill was used – i.e. voice.

Williams added, “A low number of reviews is assumed by users to mean the skill is of low quality, which although can sometimes be the case, isn’t always so. Even if you build the best skill on the platform, no one will know about it unless you get a load of reviews. But to get a load of reviews, avid Alexa users first need to discover it, which today is heavily dependent on getting noticed by the Alexa marketing team.”

Abundance of choice & poor browsing facilities

When Alexa launched Flash Briefings a few years ago, it was popular with new organizations, content producers and podcasters looking to boost their signal through the Alexa-supported news briefs. And it worked well — at first, when there were only a few of them.

But now there are over 10,000 Flash Briefings available on the platform and no easy way to sift through them.

You can see the comparison from the Google app store. Alexa’s browsing feature on a phone does not provide the same friendly, accessible interface and ease of use. The browsing and sorting features are not up the standard of typical app stores. Furthermore the Alexa store is embedded within the Alexa skill app. This mixed interface could potentially cause confusion for some users.

The app store should be accessed directly from its own app. As well as having better searching, browsing, sorting and filtering options. It is not updated enough and users have seen the same “discover” page for years now.

Conclusion

To conclude for brands and indie developers alike I see this as Voice’s biggest problem. In so far as the voice eco-system is dependent upon the value of its functionality. Third party apps can add another dimension of usability to users. Yet it is clear that third party apps are not being utilised due to poor visibility and awareness from the consumer. The saying “the cream always rises to the top” may not be justified in this scenario.

Creating a better app marketplace, more incentives or cues to review and app and a bigger corporate presence within the app store are just some potential solutions.

Sources Used:

• https://voice2021.rain.agency/trends/brands
•  https://www.pymnts.com/ecosystems/2019/overcoming-voices-discovery-problem/
•  https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/25/the-alexa-skills-store-now-has-more-than-100000-voice-apps/
• https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/04/top-vcs-on-voice/?guccounter=1
• https://voicebot.ai/2018/10/05/61-of-alexa-skills-still-have-no-ratings-and-only-1-have-more-than-100/
• https://voicebot.ai/2018/06/16/the-voice-assistants-worst-skill-discoverability/