– This post is from our head of design Jenni McKienzie. Go Longhorns! The Banter Team. I am an unabashed Longhorn sports fan. Although I haven’t been to Austin to watch a game in years, I do like to keep up with my alma mater on TV. Back in the days when we still got …
Yes, People Are Listening…They Have To
I just read an article about the shocking revelation that there are people listening to the recordings made by the smart speakers. The thing is, if you understand how natural language processing works, this isn’t surprising at all…
Can An AI Learn Language The Way Humans Do?
If an AI could learn language like humans do – that is, through building associations between sounds, things in the world, and meaning – would the AI be a more competent conversational agent? That doesn’t mean an AI would truly “understand” the meaning of words in the same way humans do. But it would greatly …
People Expect Conversations
Here’s a good read about voice technology from the Engineering VP for Google Assistant. Key point: people expect conversations. Which is why understanding people’s goals for a conversation is a critical part of conversational design. Quoting Scott Huffman: When people start using voice assistants, we often see very simple commands. But very quickly, expectations go …
MyPetDoc Is Literally Everywhere
We’re proud to share the news that MyPetDoc is now on Google Assistant. Which means you can launch it from an Android phone, an iOS device, or on any smart device where Google Home / Google Assistant is available. Which means our design and technology is pretty much available everywhere. Android users, all you need …
“I’m a Big Dog Lover” – The Advantage Of Conversational Apps
Today’s post comes from Jenni McKienzie, our principal designer. Enjoy! -Team Banter We recently visited my aunt with our newly-adopted dog in tow, which led her to share this story about her daughter: At some point while dating her then-boyfriend, the daughter said “I’m a big dog lover!” in a conversation. There’s a lack of …
Our Design Is Invisible…And That’s Good
We’re in the third week since our launch customer Vet24Seven / Ask.Vet released MyPetDoc. Over 100 reviews, and we’re still averaging 4.9 stars: Woo! Yay us, and yay Ask.Vet. But there’s more to this story besides “everyone loves the app”… the really cool part is that none of the reviewers are talking about the design. …
Early Days…But Good Days
THIS is why we design and build voice-first conversational apps. We know it’s early days, but as of today, August 1 2018, there’s 71 people in the world (not /all/ of who are friends and family… :) who have benefited from our launch customer’s voice-driven pet veterinary solution – AND thought enough of their experience to …
Hear MyPetDoc In Action
Our launch client Vet24Seven just put out an announcement about MyPetDoc, Banter’s first conversational app. Big deal, another PR piece in the world, who cares, right? Well hold on, because this announcement has a demonstration of MyPetDoc in action. This is the actual app. No fakery here. Want to hear the future of conversational app …
Banter @ Voice Summit
Banter CEO Dr. Susan Hura is at Voice Summit 2018 in Newark, New Jersey this week. Find her, say hi, talk conversational apps. In other words, a bit of witty banter. (We’re sorry…we can’t help that we’re awesome and so is our name…) Voice Summit bills itself as “the largest voice tech event of the year” …