Screens grab your attention; audio holds onto it

Photo by Phuc H. on Unsplash

Our attention bounces between tabs, apps, threads, channels, and feeds all day. We try our best to focus on just one crucial task. Instead, we pick up our phones 150 times per day in response to shiny notifications and alerts. Visuals are very effective at quickly grabbing our attention. But once a visual has our attention, it’s not long before another visual snatches it away again.

Despite this new world of fragmented attention, the recent rise in popularity of podcasting has shown us that focus can be sustained. It’s shown us that deep concentration, empathy, and comfort can come from listening. The majority of podcast listeners listen to the end of the podcast. They even pay close attention to the ads they hear and take action. There must be something unique about podcast listening to achieve this level of attention.

If audio content has superpowers, it seems obvious that voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant would take full advantage of aural attention. That hasn’t happened yet. Until now, it has been the convenience of hands-free commands, and not the interactive listening experience, that has driven the adoption of voice assistants. There is an incredible opportunity to create deeply engaging experiences, delivered through interactive voice assistants. To accomplish this, let’s unpack why listening is so special.