I was also wondering how useful Echo would be since I rarely use Google Now. As an Echo user, I can tell you it's vastly different. Echo is always there... always ready and it's surprisingly very fast. The array of microphones works great and Echo hears me from very far away (in other rooms out of line of sight, down hallways, etc). Google's voice recognition is probably still better and I do have to repeat commands sometimes - but I can be anywhere in the apartment and Echo works well.

When I'm getting ready in the morning, I will rarely check the weather on my phone because first, I need to find my phone (I seem to put it in a different place every morning) and then I need to click multiple times to see the information I want. With Echo, I can say "Alexa, will it rain today?" or "Alexa, what's the temperature?" and get an answer instantly while I'm doing other tasks. It might be less useful for smart watch users that wear them 24/7 (I don't own one).

>it's surprisingly very fast

This is very true. With Google, you have to say "Ok, Google", wait for it to go "bleep" and start listening, and only then ask.

With Echo, you just say "Alexa, what time is it" in a single second, and you get your reply.

I have the Moto360. I use it a LOT via voice, and especially so while driving. The voice recognition tends to work at better than expected rates.

In crowded settings, or sitting still, I will almost always just grab my phone before having to worry about whether or not the environment is too loud, which is (I suspect) why you probably see so few people using it.

Do you use it to text when you're surrounded by other people? The biggest drawback for me is not how noisy the environment is, it's that I literally tell other people around all that I'm doing with my phone. And as a fellow bus rider, for instance, that would annoy me to hear your text to your wife. But I found out that nobody actually does that.

As a general rule, no, unless I'm doing so to make a point / be heard. For example, I'll often verbally take a note of book recommendations that people give me, both to preserve the note for myself (as book recommendations are serious business) and to affirm to them that I am taking their recommendation seriously without having to explain that I am taking their recommendation seriously.

Beyond that, I agree that verbal commands on a bus would be inconsiderate both to the other passengers as well as the recipient of the message, whose privacy I just (slightly) violated. That said, if I'm sitting on a bus, I don't really have a good excuse for not typing the message myself, and typing is still slightly preferred except for when my hands are occupied or my phone is not conveniently accessible.

Voice interaction works great in situations where you either don't want to, shouldn't, or can't interact via touch. These situations also tend to be the ones where you don't want the distraction of any computer device (eg: driving, sports, etc.).

My biggest bias here is that I don't drive. Talking loudly to your phone feels way more intrusive in a packed train than in the intimacy of your car, even when you're stuck in traffic.

The opposite: pulling out a phone to listen to the radio or set a timer is more cumbersome.