The Ecosystem of Voice Assistants

3.25 billion – that’s the number of voice assistants in the immediate reach of consumers around the globe. In 2023, when earth’s population is expected to surpass 8 billion, so will the number of voice assistants. Why is this important? The staggering numbers highlight the rapid adoption of voice technology globally and the consumer shift of voice as the new user interface.

At Jargon, we often share our developments for platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. In light of the global adoption of voice assistants, we don’t want to dismiss the fact that there are more voice services available in the ecosystem. In fact, as noted by Voicebot.ai, it’s likely consumers will interact with more than one voice assistant.

Check out the list below for a breakdown of the current state of the voice ecosystem – it’s worth noting the wide range of numbers/availability per company when it comes to third party voice apps:

North America

Voice Service: Amazon Alexa
Wake Word: Alexa
Name of Voice Apps: Skills
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: Skill Store
Number of Voice Apps: 60,000+
Link to Website

Voice Service: Google Assistant
Wake Word: Hey Google/Ok Google
Name of Voice Apps: Actions
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: Actions Store
Number of Voice Apps: 4,250+
Link to Website

Voice Service: Samsung Bixby
Wake Word: Hey Bixby
Name of Voice Apps: Capsules
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: Bixby Marketplace
Number of Voice Apps: 100+
Link to Website

Voice Service: Apple Siri
Wake Word: Hey Siri
Name of Voice Apps: N/A
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: N/A
Number of Voice Apps: N/A
Link to Website

Voice Service: Microsoft Cortana
Wake Word: Hey Cortana
Name of Voice Apps: Skills
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: Skills Store
Number of Voice Apps: 100+
Link to Website

Voice Service: Mycroft AI
Wake Word: Hey Mycroft
Name of Voice Apps: Skills
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: Mycroft Skills Marketplace
Number of Voice Apps: 40+
Link to Website

Voice Service: Soundhound Hound
Wake Word: Ok Hound
Name of Voice Apps: N/A
3rd-party Voice App Marketplace: N/A
Number of Voice Apps: N/A
Link to Website

The World

Tech companies are global and intend to build products that transcend borders, but what we’re seeing at the moment is regional dominance when it comes to voice assistants.

China, for example, has three voice assistants competing in the mainstream market. The voice assistants are being developed by companies similar to Google (Baidu), Amazon (Alibaba), and Samsung (Xiaomi). A fourth entry announced for the Chinese market, Xiaowei, comes from WeChat, a social networking platform similar to Facebook (sound familiar?).

Check out the expanded list below to see other voice assistants from around the world:

Voice Service: Xiaomi Xaio AI
Native Language: Chinese
Link to Website

Voice Service: Baidu DeurOS
Native Language: Chinese
Link to Website

Voice Service: Alibaba Aligenie
Native Language: Chinese
Link to Website

Voice Service: Sherpa Assistant
Native Language: Spanish
Link to Website

Voice Service: Mawdoo3 Salma
Native Language: Arabic
Link to Website

Voice Service: Alice by Yandex
Native Language: Russian
Link to Website

Voice Service: Oleg by Tinkoff Bank
Native Language: Russian
Link to Website

Voice Service: Marusya by Mail.ru Group
Native Language: Russian
Link to Website


Want to try out a voice assistant?

A few of the voice assistants listed above are available as mobile applications on smartphones. To try another voice assistant on iOS or Android, use the link for the voice assistant of your choice below:
Microsoft Cortana - iOS or Android
Amazon Alexa - iOS or Android
Google Assistant - iOS
Hound - iOS or Android

Speak Spanish? Try Sherpa on iOS or Android

Looking to learn more about Jargon? Check out these additional resources below:
Get Started with Jargon
Jargon SDK Starter Templates