Businesses develop mobile apps for different reasons. The main objective is to improve their interactions and relationships with potential customers with higher sales in mind.
Today, every leading brand has a mobile app. Small businesses have also joined in and developed apps to keep up with the trends.
While businesses try to catch up with functional apps, the trends are already changing. Brands have moved from the usual type and swipe interfaces to voice search.
The latest trends in mobile apps development now include voice-enabled apps. Some brands like Pandora and Snapchat have already shifted to this trend.
Here is the challenge with many brands. Technology changes every other day as brands try to give their users the best experience possible. Unfortunately, most brands are slow to implement new trends.
Do you remember the response when mobile-friendly websites were introduced? Many companies continued with their old website designs until it began to affect their traffic and sales.
Voice search has been here for a while with the likes of Google Assistant, Siri, and Amazon Alexa. You must have tried these searches by now. The trend is now infiltrating mobile app development.
Should you consider the trend or “wait and see”? Before you brush off the idea, let us look at some of the benefits of voice-enabled apps
Stay ahead of your competitors
Very few brands have voice-enabled apps at this time. In fact, some brands are still trying to fix bugs in their apps while the world is moving to voice search.
Your brand can be the first in your industry to add voice commands to your mobile app. Do not sit back and wait to see how the trend goes. Many phone users are already using voice search daily instead of typing.
You have an opportunity as a business or brand owner to stand out before the next trend comes. Voice capabilities can be a marketing tool on app stores and other platforms before your competitors catch up with the trend.
Hands-free operation
Why do users speak into their devices instead of typing? In most cases, they have no time to sit and type every letter. Phone users are looking for capabilities that minimize distractions from their work or activities.
Phone manufacturers identified this need and introduced voice recognition capabilities. Now, phone users can open their devices, call or send a message, and exit without touching the screen.
The capabilities enabled phone users to multitask. They can confirm a meeting while on the move. They can order a product while working out.
Voice-enabled apps provide the same convenience. Your target customers can search for a product or request for information about your brand while on the go.
Once users know they can give such commands easily and fast, they will interact with your app more every day. Increased interactions will lead to higher sales, especially from returning customers.
Quick search results and insights
Voice capabilities enable customers to find the information to make a purchase decision fast. Customers can easily find out if an item is in stock.
The search results are fast in comparison to a whole page of results that an app gives when a user types in a query.
Your business benefits further from quick insights based on the customers’ queries. You can tell the kind of products that your customers are looking for from their voice commands.
In addition, your app can recommend related or complementary products to the customer while they interact with the app.
All the customer has to do is answer yes or no to the queries and the items are added to their carts.
Low development costs
You might be thinking that voice capabilities will cost you an arm and a leg to implement. No, the trend is affordable. You can redesign your current app to include the capabilities.
When the speech algorithm was first introduced, app developers would take years to fully implement it. It is now an easy and fast process with a speech SDK.
Your part is to identify the right mobile app developers who know how to embed speech recognition capabilities into apps.
If you are considering redesigning your mobile app or developing a new app, voice capabilities should be part of your list of features.
User-friendliness
A simple task like checking the price of a product will take many taps or clicks to complete. Even if you try to minimize the number of clicks, the customer will still spend more time locating a product.
Voice search makes an app more user-friendly because we naturally speak faster than we type. Some devices are also slow in responding to commands.
Speech recognition capabilities enable customers to bypass many steps, which improves their experience with your brand.
Users will begin to associate your brand with speed, convenience, and improved customer satisfaction. In addition to loyalty, you will get more recommendations to potential customers from your satisfied customers.
Remember that e-commerce is only getting better and more competitive. You need every opportunity to market and differentiate your brand.
Customers will expect it
Enabling voice search is not just a matter of keeping up with mobile app development trends. Mobile phone users have already shifted to voice commands on search engines.
Speaking into devices instead of typing or swiping is the new norm. Shortly, customers will not consider the new technology as an advantage.
Instead, customers will expect competitive brands to have voice-enabled apps. Customers expect businesses to follow and implement trends.
If you lag behind, you may lose some customers and opportunities to market your brand as a leader in the industry. Your competitors should not set the pace for your brand to follow.
Final thoughts
Mobile app owners must wake up to the reality that voice-enabled apps are now a trend. Voice search is becoming the most preferred way of interacting with brands, especially when searching for products or services online. As technology advances, customers will prefer brands that keep up with trends to give the best experience possible. If you seek to maximize e-commerce sales and increase brand competitiveness, consider embedding voice capabilities into your app.
