Recent days have seen a lot of buzz about Augmented Reality and Voice Search. Given the extraordinary technological advances and the way wearables, smartphones and other gadgets have transformed our lives, it is very clear that there is probably no limit to what they can do. In this article, we would discuss two technologies that are responsible for the changing way of human interaction with the gadgets and also the world.
Voice Search
Technology has spread its wings wide and has ever changed the way we see and perceive the world. It was not very long that we were awestruck by the fact that we could rather talk to people across continents irrespective of time and place using a phone. But that has been left much behind in the queue of wonder list and now we are actually able to talk to our phones and make it follow our commands. We can ask Siri to send a message to any particular member of our family, ask Alexa to play a song or ask Cortana to tell you current weather or traffic conditions. According to CampaignLive reports, almost 40% of the adults are known to use voice search once in a day. It is interesting to note that for humans speech was the first mode of communication and text followed suit. But in the technological arena, it is opposite with text coming into the picture first followed by speech. With the advent of systems like Cortana, Siri, Alexa and Amazon Echo, voice commands and search have entered our daily lives. The popularity of these systems and increasing dependency of humans on them is validated when we see Amazon sales data reflecting 4.4 million Echo units being sold in its first full year of sales, (source GeekWire).
Both app marketers and mobile app developers can implement voice search to their advantage by altering their marketing strategy with simple incorporations. There are few interesting points to take note that affect the changing trend in the marketing approach. All this while, proper positioning of keywords has been the prime factor of SEO and app marketing. But the approach changes when a user shift to voice search. The pattern of the search from keyword centric changes to question pattern like, “where is the nearest gas station” instead of “gas station Texas” like in SEO. The pattern of long-tail voice searches has been found to start with “where”, “what”, “why”, “when”, “how”, so marketers are expected to align their search results based on these questions so that their app or content shows up in voice search results.
Over the years Google has transformed itself to be an incredibly intelligent and intuitive. The search results that we receive in the present days are way too precise and accurate. If your content is clickbait or has low quality keywords incorporated, then it has no chances to place itself in the SERPs. We have seen that short queries and precise queries like international time, unit conversions, and name of actors do get answered at the auto-complete stage in the address bar itself. In the time when we are standing with such precision, it is but natural that voice search will make results more conversational. According to Forbes, 2017 will be marked as the year of voice search.
It should be well understood that when consumers are increasingly turning to intelligent assistants like Alexa, Cortana, and Siri, the mobile app developers should also integrate voice search in their apps offering sharper, quicker and more conversational results. OK Google is all set to revolutionize its in-app search with voice. It has become important that all mobile app development that is taking place in today’s tech scenario should be made compatible to support voice search. If a consumer wants to know “where is the nearest restaurant”? restaurant finder app should be able to display real-time in-app results.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR), has proven to be a real game-changer in the mobile app world. As a consumer, if you are on the move and feel lost, you can hold your phone having the correct augmented reality app like Wikitude, turn the camera around and you would come to know about your present location and also about the nearest places of interest of that specific area.
AR technology allows a user to superimpose a product, convenience or a feature on his real surroundings so that the user gets a clear idea on how it would look like in real life. App developers get opportunity to provide users with a real life experience of how their product can bring change into their lives. The situation is almost as close as real –life test driving and this has proven to be a far more promising way to engage a customer.
Let us have some examples of some of the largest industries to understand how they have benefited from Augmented Reality applications:
1. Education and Training
The applications of AR in educational and training sectors is truly limitless. AR when combined with Virtual Reality, can prove to be of immense help to the students in providing real-life perspectives and simulated experiences facilitating a much clearer understanding of the concept. This application has become more accessible to students from various streams. Surgical interns can practice procedures without needing to execute a real incision. Sportspersons can refine their skills without being needing to step out during bad weather conditions and so on limitless possibilities. If we go by Goldman Sachs, the educational market for VR/AR is projected to touch $300 million by the 2020.
2. Retail and e-commerce
The concept of virtual trial rooms where users can come and try on various clothes of their choice before making the final selection has been immensely welcomed and AR in this picture can thus decrease returns to a great extent. The same technology can be put into use when it comes to buying furniture for homes. Consumers can actually have a virtual feel of how their interiors would look before investing. This applies while buying stuff like cars, makeup items, jewelry.
3. Travel and Tourism
Travel and Tourism has seen one of most vigorous use of AR in its sector. The GPS maps fortified with AR extends a much clearer and interactive view of surroundings, offers accurate and detailed city guides that are simple to navigate and makes searching nearby utilities extremely effective. All that a user has to do in order to operate and get results is to point the camera to view the detailed description of his/her surroundings.
It’s a vital point that mobile app developers need to make proactive efforts in leveraging the power of AR in their app development process. The aim of businesses should offer the end users experience that would be more appealing, interactive and life-like bringing in AR capabilities in their mobile apps.
4. Manufacturing
In the manufacturing process, AR aided product designs, digital maps and prototypes results in time saving and delivering precise data and insights. Project managers can visualize as to how a projected product would appear and function and based on their results they can easily recommend structural modifications at the earliest. Monitoring the work progress with the help of augmented reality markers on equipment becomes much easier and organized.
Conclusion
The above discussion clearly proves the importance and effectiveness of Augmented Reality and Voice Search in the ever changing and rapidly developing the technological scenario. The mindset should not be to consider them to be fancy features, which if needed can be used in installments. To cater to the aware and smart consumers of the present days, who want cutting-edge experience, it is vital that augmented reality and voice search both should be treated as intrinsic parts of any mobile app. This would ensure the faith and trust of the consumers towards these mobile apps.
