Smart speakers, tested out loud and judged without ceremony.
The Voice for Voice is two people in a London office talking about Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, always asking what might make money. Skills get tested live, verdicts come fast, and detours into pub quizzes or the neighbours at MI6 are part of the texture.
PRESS PLAY
The Voice for Voice is a conversation about voice assistants and the business forming around them, carried by Geraint John, founder of Move Digital, alongside Will Bradley. Brixton, sirens audible, is the backdrop for several episodes. Another finds the pair relocated to Vauxhall, overlooking the Thames beside the MI6 building, where the staff filing in become an early bit of chatter. The shape is easy to read from the titles. Skill of the Week and Head-to-Head turn up again and again, next to lists of the news items up for debate. Testing is done out loud. A spoken command opens the skill, the assistant answers, and the two react in real time. A Deal or No Deal skill wins praise for leaning on the screen of a display device. A finance action called Fili.ai gets a far cooler reception, and the pair cannot even settle whether the segment should be called Skill, Action or Voice App of the Week. The news side ranges widely: an Amazon patent that could let Alexa record without its wake word, Google's Duplex for the web, described as 'autofill on steroids', the BBC blocking its podcasts from Google Assistant, and Spotify's voice-enabled ads. What ties it together is a commercial question. A florist selling exclusive flower content, a bike shop selling spare parts by voice, a restaurant handing its repetitive phone queries to Call Joy: each idea is judged by whether a business could actually earn from it. Voice search gets the same treatment. The pair concede that a widely repeated forecast about voice's share of Google searches by 2020 is nowhere near coming true, then turn to practical advice about FAQ pages written the way people speak. Guests widen the view. One episode is recorded at What3Words headquarters, where Chris Sheldrick explains why a city with dozens of roads called Victoria Road, plus soundalikes such as Lawn Road and Lorn Road, trips up a screenless assistant, and describes Mercedes-Benz building three-word addresses into its car navigation. Other episode titles carry the names of Jake Dubbins and Mark McCulloch. Read as a run, the titles also return to privacy, charity, children, cars, accessibility and government services. The register is matey and quick, and opinions arrive unhedged. Tangents are part of the deal, from pub quizzes to giving Siri an Australian accent for fun. There is candour as well, as when a statistic is floated and someone admits it should have been checked before recording. The banter can turn blunt and occasionally salty, but the critique usually lands on substance, such as the argument that even a modest skill can find users if a clear explainer video shows it working. The episode dates run through 2018 and 2019, so the show now plays as a record of a moment when brands were being urged to build skills and many had not. A good place to start is 'S2 Ep12 - Chris Sheldrick, What3Words' for a focused guest conversation, or 'S2 Ep11 - Alexa's New Privacy Concerns, UK Monetisation, Deal or No Deal Skill of the Week, Head-to-Head' for the mix of testing, news and debate.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants to hear voice apps tested out loud and judged by what brands and small businesses could do with them, and who enjoys tangents along the way. It also fits someone curious about how the smart-speaker business looked in 2018 and 2019.
What sets it apart: The pair do not review voice tech from a distance. They open real Alexa skills and Google actions on air, react as they go, and then judge each one by an agency's test of whether a business could sell anything through it.
Geraint John, founder of Move Digital, discusses all things related to Voice Technology. So, whether you are interested in Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri, Cortana, or Chatbots, then this is the show for you!Throughout the series, we'll be speaking with various influencers within the Voice Technology sphere, who offer fascinating insights into what's going on in the Voice industry at the moment, as well as predictions for the future. We'll also be conducting hands-on tests on various Voice apps on Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri and Cortana, before putting these devices head-to-head in competitions to see which platform has the edge.At the end of the series, we'll be giving away an Amazon Sh…
Thirty-four Victoria Roads, one screenless assistant: you can hear the address problem coming.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded, curious look at why Alexa's future still depends on what people build for it.
The Voice for Voice frames Alexa's recent product announcements as a larger question about what voice technology becomes when people start building more useful skills around it.
A clear, practical look at how voice assistants expose the weak spots in conventional addresses.
The Voice for Voice visits What3Words headquarters for a focused conversation with Chris Sheldrick on why conventional addresses can sit awkwardly inside voice interfaces.
A Brixton discussion of Alexa's privacy trade-off, grounded by a Deal or No Deal skill that still needs a screen.
The Voice for Voice returns to the everyday snags of voice technology, using a Deal or No Deal skill and Alexa's proposed privacy trade-off to keep the debate grounded.
A grounded look at Google's Duplex automation, Project Maven scrutiny, and voice technology's more cautious next step.
The Voice for Voice treats Google's latest Duplex discussion as a practical turn for voice automation, with the focus on cutting repetitive form-filling and smoothing out everyday web tasks.
A practical look at how voice ads might turn a spoken yes into measurable action.
The Voice for Voice treats a smart-home sponsor read as a working test for spoken advertising. The episode follows Customized as it imagines an ad that can ask whether someone wants more information, take a spoken yes, and move that person toward a website.
Voice tech from the builders' side.
Specialists walking through software's tradeoffs, one system at a time.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
The Voice for Voice returns with Geraint John and Will in Vauxhall, London, discussing six months of voice changes from an office overlooking the Thames and MI6.
Chris Sheldrick says What3Words divides the world into 3m x 3m squares and gives each square three dictionary words, including examples like toffee branch pyramid.
["Geraint John records from Brixton, London, and opens with a Deal or No Deal Alexa skill that pushes two free plays, a purchase prompt, and a \u00a323,500 banker offer.
The Voice for Voice episode 10 from Brixton, London focuses on Google Duplex for the web, Spotify voice-enabled ads, and Call Joy.
Interactive voice ads, BBC podcasts on Google Assistant, and a Fili.ai Google Action for debt advice dominate episode 9 of series 2.
Alexa's Fortnite reply to 'how are you today?' is treated as a possible first ad, though Amazon states 'we have not introduced advertising on Alexa.' The hosts test the Accado skill, adding prawns, anchovies and Gorgonzola to a trolley, and score it between six and seven out of ten.
Geraint John and Jake Dubbins of Media Bounty discuss using Alexa and Google Home 'for good', with Jake saying privacy rules of engagement could slow or speed adoption.
Mark McCulloch of SuperSonic tells The Voice for Voice that food and drink marketing is held back by operator-led companies, tight budgets of £100,000-£300,000 a year and boards that want direct returns from social.
Host Geraint John and guest William discuss the end of the first series and reflect on the year in voice technology.
Geraint John introduces the podcast about voice technology, discusses a review competition, and previews a scrum meeting on voice news.
Hosts discuss podcast statistics, announce daily flash briefings on Alexa, and preview a segment on Siri shortcuts and Alexa's iOS integration.
The hosts discuss flash briefings for brands and test a new voice skill called Guess My Name.