Google Claims It Has 500 Million Assistant Users Each Month

Google recently claimed that its Google Assistant service is used by over 500 million people across the globe each month. While it sounds nice, the statement proved to be a double-edged sword for the company.

The plus side is, Google’s Assistant has access to over 500 million devices. This puts Google ahead of Amazon. Amazon reported last year that it sold over 100 million gadgets armed with the Alexa voice assistant. Access to more devices than Amazon also means Google’s Assistant has access to more mass data and can recognise more patterns. Hence it can bring up more relevant results, and basically, do more.

But here is the problem. Google’s Android operating system runs on about 2.5 billion devices. The 500 million figure shows that Google Assistant is being used only on lesser than a fourth of all Android devices. This points to the service either not being used on about two billion Android devices. This could be either due to the service not being available, or users refusing to use it.

Why does Google Assistant’s user base matter?

The stats hence reveal that though it has a large reach, Google’s Assistant could be used on a large percentage of Android smartphones out there. Google is yet to tap into the big data offered by about two billion devices, and that is a big number.

The numbers help us understand the scale at which the data war is brewing. Between companies like Google Amazon, Apple, and Facebook, everyone wants their digital assistants and services at people’s disposal. Further, voice-data is considered the future. Voice data has proven to be the key for brands to pull people towards their ecosystem and hence, products. The information is used by companies to advertise and sell more relevant products and services towards people. After all, data is where the ‘smart’ in smart assistants comes from.―BGR