Today, brands are exploring the ever-increasing value of chatbots, virtual assistants, and voice assistants as a method of delivering a personalized, more efficient customer experience. And while voice-activated digital assistants are already present in most smartphones, the feature is expanding across different operating systems and hardware devices.
Voice-activated assistants use wake words to get activated and follow commands. Wake words are important in creating voice-activated assistants.
In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of creating a custom wake word for your brand’s digital assistant.
What is a wake word?
A wake word is a word that is used to trigger a voice assistant, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, or Google Assistant. The wake word is typically “Alexa,” “Siri,” or “OK Google,” but the user can change it to any word of their choosing.
When someone speaks the wake word, it activates the voice assistant, and they can then use it to perform tasks, such as playing music, setting alarms, or adding items to a shopping list.
Brand + Custom wake word
If you’re looking for a custom wake word for your brand, there are a few things to consider:
- First, you’ll need to decide what word or phrase you want to use. This should be easy to remember and say but also unique enough to avoid confusing other common words or phrases.
- Once you’ve decided on your wake word, you’ll need to create a recording of it that’s clear and free of background noise. This recording will train your voice recognition system, so it must be high quality.
- Finally, you’ll need to test your wake word to ensure it works as intended. You can do this by saying the wake word into your voice recognition system and seeing if it responds correctly. If it doesn’t, you may need to adjust your system’s recording or training.
Example of companies using custom wake word for branding
Wake word branding is a great way to add personality and brand recognition, as the wake word only wakes the brand’s voice assistant. It’s also a great way to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
There are many examples of companies using custom wake words for branding purposes. For instance,
- Amazon’s Alexa assistant has often invoked the voice command “Alexa.” You can also use the Alexa app to manage several Alexa-enabled devices and give commands just by using the word “Alexa.”
- Similarly, you can activate Google’s Assistant with multiple wake words such as “Hey, Google” or “Ok, Google.”
- You can also activate Apple’s Siri assistant with the wake word “Hey, Siri.”
Using a custom wake word, these companies can create a stronger association with their respective custom voice assistants and promote their brand.
Custom data collection & Testing
To create a wake word customized for your voice and environment, you’ll need to collect and test data.
Several factors can affect wake word detection, such as:
- The user’s accent
- The background noise level
- False positives (keywords detected by the assistant that the user didn’t speak)
- The clarity of the user’s speech recognition
To ensure accuracy, it’s important to test wake word detection in various real-world scenarios.
One way to do this is to use custom data collection. This involves recording utterance data (real-world conversations) that include the wake word and then using this data to train and test the wake word detection algorithms. This approach can be time-consuming and expensive, but it is the best way to ensure accuracy.
Another approach is to use synthetic data. This involves generating artificial wake word training data that includes the wake word. This data can be generated using speech to text synthesis or by artificially adding the wake word to recordings of real-world conversations. This approach is less expensive and time-consuming than custom data collection, but it is less likely to produce accurate results.
Why Your Brands Need Custom wake word
Like most people, you probably use some form of voice assistant daily. Whether it’s Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, these tools have become integral to our lives. But have you ever stopped to think about why you use the wake word that you do?
For most people, the answer is “because that’s what the assistant is programmed to respond to.” But for brands, there’s a lot more to consider. A custom wake word can help your brand stand out from the crowd and create a more unique and memorable user experience.
Think about it this way: when you hear someone say your brand’s name, it instantly catches your attention. The same is true for a custom wake word. It’s a way to grab your users’ attention and make your brand memorable.
There are a few things to remember when choosing a custom wake word, but ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what will work best for your brand. A custom wake word is a great place to start if you’re looking for a way to make your voice assistant more unique.
Conclusion
Custom wake words can help with your brand’s personalization and set it apart from competitors. There are a lot of factors to consider when selecting a custom wake word. But, if you want to stand out in today’s competitive business world, it’s worth it to put the extra effort into making sure that your voice assistant sounds unique.
