Voice Search – How important is it for Mobile App Developers?

“OK Google, Play a song”, “Cortana, Order a pizza for me”, “Siri, call Jack”, “Alexa, dim the light” - Such commands are completely mainstream these days. Voice search, which was once an optional interface for communication, has slowly and gradually become an indispensable medium of communication. Needless to say, it is paving its way to become a main aspect within the digital marketing environment, or something beyond our expectations.

Google recently revealed that 20% of the searches on its mobile app and Android services are made by voice, and this number is going to increase in the next few years. The marketers also announced that search by voice will replace keyboards by 2022.

These figures are not only staggering for smartphone users but are also holding a significant importance for mobile app developers. The increasing trend of voice-based services will make it necessary for mobile app development companies to incorporate voice search capability into their apps. Besides, this technology will also have a great impact on mobile app marketing strategies and their success ratio. Wondering how?

Well, below are the different changes that Voice-search technology will bring:

Change in Organic Search Pattern

Search by voice is quite different from traditional search patterns. In the case of voice search, users will approach searches with a more natural and conversational language. Search queries will be longer and mostly in the form of questions. Because of this, content optimized as per prevailing, short-tail keywords will experience poor organic search performance as opposed to those delivering value and matching user queries.

This implies that mobile app marketers will have to focus on customer-first marketing for ruling the ‘voice-enabled world’. They have to build a keyword strategy that will be more conversational and depict how real people interact with one another. Only then, they will be able to drive higher traffic, boost user engagement and build customer loyalty.

Focus on Location-based Services

With queries like, “Chinese restaurants near me” or “Where can I find a coffee shop around me?”, it will be more important for mobility experts to localize their services using location-based technology. Otherwise, they might miss out on the local search traffic and users.

Better SEO Optimization

Users, these days, want faster and efficient results. This is the prime reason why they prefer search by voice. This mechanism provides one result at a time, which means you have to work on better SEO strategies to rank on the first page. Otherwise, your app would remain alien.

Keeping the drifting shift from text-search to voice search in consideration, it is quite epoch-making for businesses and for mobile app development companies to invest in voice-search services. Otherwise, they might miss out on potential traffic and eventually, lose the competition. But, the next question that arises is:

Is it the Right time to Invest in Integrating Voice Commands into Your Application?

As a part of the mobile industry for last 3 years, we strongly recommend that all companies integrate voice command services into their mobile applications right now. This is highly important given that voice-search is the future of mobile application development.

If you incorporate voice commands into your application today, you will have several benefits such as:

Stand out from the crowd

Despite the popularity of voice-based searches, not many apps support the vocal search functionality. If you create a mobile application enabling voice commands or you opt to update your existing app with this functionality, it will definitely be a great move. You will face less competition in the market and you'll be ahead of all those developers and companies who might implement this feature a few years later.

Higher User retention rate

The basic reason why voice search is being adopted at a higher speed is convenience and quick response. The user doesn't need to go through the hassle of typing anything or correcting misspelled words. They can find the results they want by using their voice. This will boost user satisfaction and engagement, which will ultimately improve user retention rates.

Better Performance

Since most actions within mobile applications will be performed using voice and all the resources will be saved on the cloud, technology will let top mobile app developers provide advanced services to the users without affecting app performance.

Dev Support

Ever since the advent of this technology, tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have been creating APIs and software available for app developers. This means you can easily integrate this features into your app.

So, are you ready to implement voice search functionality into your mobile application?

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