"learn, Use, and (Intermittently) Abandon": Exploring the Practices of Early Smart Speaker Adopters in Urban India

Abstract

Since smart speakers were introduced to the Indian markets at the end of 2017, they have been adopted by hundreds of thousands households in India. While the scholarship has examined the long-term use of voice-based devices in western contexts, little is known about user behavior in India - one of the fastest-growing smart speaker markets in the Asian Pacific region. Therefore, this study aims to explore how members families in India integrate Google Home into their daily lives. To this end, we collected long-term Google Home activity logs from 20 households and conducted interviews with one member from each generation in every household. Our findings shed light on the unique daily use patterns of adults and children, the users' approaches to, and challenges in learning to use, the devices, and factors that impact users' continued use or abandonment of the devices. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of our findings and by proposing relevant design recommendations.