why do desktop OS's have "assistants".. does anybody actually use them?

[Ashleyyyy]

so i had a thought. Windows has Cortana, macOS has Siri and ChromeOS has the Google Assistant. 

 

why? they are slow no matter what you want to do, and compromise your privacy. 

 

now yes, if you are disabled in some way, say you are missing an arm or something like that then i understand why an assistant could be useful when using your computer, but for the everyday user, is it necessary or does it just add bloat? 

 

i'd love to hear your opinions on this and if you have them enabled or not. 

 

i own various devices with all of those OS's and i have the assistants disabled on all of them. 

[Sauron]

I don't, but some people apparently do - many either don't understand the implications or don't care enough that they'll give up that small convenience.

 

But then, there are many things I consider useless or just a pita that many people consider essential.

[Wolly9102]

I rarely use Google assistant. Only to search a specific question on Google or to recognize a song. But that's about it. Cortana isn't even available for me. But I find a more useless on feature on windows 10 than it was on windows phone.

[Princess Luna]

I don't use them and it isn't even due to "privacy" matters, mostly just not refined or fast enough to be of any use to me.

 

I dislike it to the point many years ago I killed Cortana for good on my systems because I didn't deem it worthy the 30~40 megabyte RAM usage it had.

[Princess Luna]

6 minutes ago, Genwyn said:

If you're concerned about ram usage you shouldn't be using windows to begin with.

Gee you must really hate Windows to get off your way to do such comment, no I am not interested in a different operating system nor I am in need for more RAM, if I were I'd just buy more.

 

It was merely a comment on how useless I consider Cortana.

[PiPi636]

I personally do like to use digital assistants... from time to time, they do make life easier. For example: I love to be able to hit a keyboard shortcut and just ask Siri to search for a picture when writing a document followed by just dragging and dropping it from the results without opening a browser.

 

I also use it to create quick reminders or to change music. Since I'm generally switching between my whiteboards and my laptop when doing research, sometimes it's just more convenient to ask something rather then actually opening apps to do it. This also counts for doing quick searches online.

[wasab]

They are there to spy on you silly. I disable my Google assistant on my phone and cortana in the very rare instance I use windows.

[lloose]

I use Siri on my phone all the time. The only thing I use it for is a kitchen timer though. On my desktop/laptop OS? I have literally no reason to ever use a digital assistant.

[UnwantedLinks]

they are useful, and they do have a purpose, but people don't really utilize them much, since you can do anything else with a few keyboard button presses and a few mouse clicks, so yeah, if its something like amazon alexa, google home mini, yeah, i can understand the use of that,

 

i rarely use cortana but they're still useful for mobile units (like laptops), 

[Joluch]

Like most people mentioned above, I think it really depends on the situation and user as well. For most "power users," voice controlled assistants may lack the speed or agility to be used as a competitive alternative to Mouse / keyboard / touchscreen controls for now. The only consistent use I've managed to keep using cortana for is to set an alarm, mostly when I'm cooking .

People who have benefited the most though are those who have difficulty using traditional keyboard/mice to interact with the system. When my dad's arthritis acts up, he's more than happy to use the voice assistant, even if he still feels a bit self-conscious about it.

The one event that turned my opinion around on these digital assistants though, was a few years ago when I demonstrated the voice assistant's ability to a disabled customer. The customer's whole face just lit up, this technology opened his world up more than I could have imagined. So, even though, it's something that doesn't quite fit my needs, and I have reservations about, I would always try to mention and demonstrate it to my customers. Partly to let them be aware of the privacy issues, but also, I never know who may benefit from this.

I do work near a major hospital though, so the odds of situations like this happening may be a bit higher than average.

[Psittac]

On a smart device I like to use an assistant, I have a couple google home devices and use it regularly but for a very small number of thing's.  Like setting my livingroom lights because there are no real light switches being an older house, or simply for an alarm or as a noise machine for sleeping.  That's really about it, I haven't gone full power user on google home because the information is spoty at best and every time I try out a command that should be intuitive she says "I'm sorry I don't understand" or "I'm sorry I can't do that yet" so I haven't looked into it further.  They have a long ways to go as an interface because it's basically a short list of predetermined commands which you have to know what they are.

 

For desktops, completely and utterly useless, but then again I prefer low level interaction with my machine to a certain degree.  I'd love to combine the two and start using ifttt but I really lack the motivation.

 

I have zero concerns about privacy, I have nothing to hide and if someone is going to hack me theres really nothing I can do about it short of general security in the first place.  On that note I do hate the fact that I googled coursera to recommend it to a friend then for a couple weeks got nothing but online learning schools on youtube, that really annoys me.  I hate ad's in general because I'm not easily swayed by them to begin with, I know what I like and my money goes towards that.  The only ad's that I accept and even enjoy are sponsored spot's from the creators I frequent.

[benjaminllim]

When I'm at my desktop I sometimes use it (Cortana) to play/pause music or check weather or open an app. I don't really use it much other than that.