Voice Search is Less Popular in 2019, According to New Study

Voice search is trending downward in terms of how likely people are to use it a means of looking up information.

According to a newly released study from Stone Temple, voice search placed fourth when over 1,000 people were asked how they use their phone to find information.

The phrasing was, “When I need to look up information, I am most likely to … (Please rank your top three choices).”:

1. Use voice search
2. Type the question into the search window of my phone
3. Type the question into search engine apps
4. Open a mobile browser such as Safari or Google Chrome, and type the question
5. Ask a friend via text or messaging app

Here’s how the results came in:

Credit: Stone Temple

Mobile browsers are peoples’ top choice for conducting searches on a phone, followed by a search engine app in second place, and the phone’s built-in search window in third place.

By comparison, voice search was the third most popular choice for performing mobile searches in 2018.

Last year, voice search placed just below search engine apps, and ahead of the phone’s search window.

What’s also important to note from the study is that more people selected voice search as their first choice for conducting searches.

Credit: Stone Temple

In 2019, roughly 25% of respondents listed voice search as their first choice, compared to around 15% in 2018.

However, when the ranking of all choices is taken into consideration, voice search only placed fourth.

This data suggests that those who engage with voice search at all often consider it their top choice.

With that said, voice search is not something most people are likely to have engaged with yet, according to the study.

Only 20% of people have used voice commands with online search

The study asked participants: “Which of these applications have you controlled with voice commands?”

Out of a list of 11 choices, online search came in sixth place with roughly 20% of respondents saying it’s something they’ve controlled by voice.

Most people use voice commands to make a call, text, get directions, play music, and set reminders.

Credit: Stone Temple

For what it’s worth, the study finds that women are more likely to use voice for online search than men.

That’s notable since men are more likely to use voice commands in all but two applications: texting and voice search.

These are just a few of the 31 data points in Stone Temple’s study on voice usage trends for 2019. See the full study here.

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