The Rise of Voice and Social Audio: A Timeline


The timeline below identifies the main milestones in the arrival of voice interfaces to the mainstream. We would love your feedback in making this timeline of voicebot voice assistants richer and more accurate. Please send us a note via the form below this timeline.

PS: If you would like to keep up with the latest on the world of Voice First, please check out The Voice First Digest.



April 19, 2021 — Facebook Lays Out Ambitious Social Audio Plans to Compete With Clubhouse and Twitter


April 18, 2021 — Nuance Acquired by Microsoft


February 23, 2021 — Clubhouse Surpasses 10 Million Users


December 18, 2020 — Smart Home Ownership Nearing 50% of U.S. Adults with Voice Assistant Control Becoming More Popular


April 5, 2019 — Amazon Alexa launches its first HIPAA-compliant medical skills


August 15, 2018 — Cortana and Alexa become available on each other’s platforms


August 9, 2018 — Samsung Announces the Galaxy Home smart speaker


May 23, 2018 — Google Home overtakes Amazon Echo in smart speaker sales for the first time


May 7, 2018 — Cortana & Alexa Officially Announced


May 3, 2018  — Amazon opens more monetization tools for Alexa developers


May 3, 2018  — SoundHound Closes $100 Million Funding Round


May 2, 2018 — Google starts throwing cash at Google Assistant startups


February 9, 2018 — Apple Launches Homepod


November 17, 2017  — Launch of Apple’s HomePod speaker delayed


November 15, 2017 — Amazon announces that Alexa and Amazon Echo products will be available in Canada starting December, 2017


October 25, 2017 – Amazon introduces paid subscriptions for Alexa skills


October 11, 2017 — Amazon supports VoiceID


October 2, 2017 — Amazon Alexa Supports Voice Calling


September 27, 2017 — Amazon launches Echo Spot and Echo Plus


August 31, 2017 — Sony announces its Google Assistant powered LF-S50G smart speaker


August 30, 2017 — Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana Interoperability Announced


August 28, 2017 — Amazon closes its acquisition of Whole Foods


August 22, 2017 — Walmart and Google Partner on Voice-based Shopping


August 2017 – Google Home Supports Voice Calling


June 28, 2017 — Echo Show Generally Available


June 21, 2017 — Samsung releases Bixby in the United States


May 10, 2017 — Microsoft Announces Cortana on Harman-Kardon’s Invoke speaker


April 27, 2017 — Google announces the general availability of Google Assistant SDK for hardware makers


April 20, 2017 — Google Home Supports Voice ID


February 2, 2017 — Amazon Announces its Alexa Partners


December 8, 2016 — Google Action Announces Google Assistant Partners


November 4, 2016 — Google Home Generally Released


October 5, 2016 — Samsung Acquires Viv


September 19, 2016 — Google Acquires API.AI


September 14, 2016 — Amazon Announces the arrival of Alexa and the Echo in the UK and Germany


May 23, 2016 — Facebook Acquires VR Audio Two Big Ears


March 3, 2016 — Amazon Tap and Echo Dot Generally Released


December 15, 2015 — SoundHound Launches Houndify Platform


June 25, 2015 — Alexa Voice Service (AVS) Kit Generally Released


June 25, 2015 — Amazon Launches The Alexa Fund 


June 25, 2015 — Alexa Skills Kit Generally Released


June 23, 2015 — The Amazon Echo is Generally Available


April 8th, 2015 — Amazon Echo launches Connected Home capabilities 


January 2015 – Facebook Acquires Wit.AI


November 6, 2014 — Amazon Echo Available By Invitation Only to Amazon Prime members


Oct 18, 2014 — The Ubiquitous Voice Society Launched


April 2, 2014 — Microsoft Announces Cortana


October 22, 2013 — XOWi launches its Voice Badge Kickstarter Campaign


August 12, 2013 — Facebook Acquires Speech Translation startup Jibbigo


June 2013 — Genesys Acquires Angel.com


January 2013 — Amazon Acquires Poland based Text to Speech provider Ivona 


September 2012 — Nuance Communications  acquires Ditech Networks


August 13, 2012 — Angel.com Announces Lexee


August 12, 2012 — UCIC Launches its Ubi Kickstarter campaign


August 6, 2012 — Nuance Announces Neena


December 20, 2011 — Nuance Communications acquires Vlingo


November 2011 — Amazon Acquires Yap


August 2011 — Nuance Communications acquires Loquendo


October 4, 2011 — Apple Launches Siri on 4S


June 2011 — Nuance Communications files another lawsuit against Vlingo 


June 14, 2011 — Google Announces Voice Search


November 2010 — Nuance Communications acquires PerSay


April 28, 2010 — Apple Acquires Siri


February 4, 2010 — Siri is published as a mobile app on iOS


September 2009 — SimulScribe Signs Exclusive Partnership Agreement With Ditech Networks


December 2009 — Nuance Communications acquires Speech to Text provider Spinvox


December 2008 — PhoneTag rebrands as Simulscribe 


June 2008 — Nuance Communications sues Vlingo for alleged patent infringement


April 24, 2007 — Nuance Communications Acquires BeVocal 


March 2007 — Microsoft Acquires Tellme for $800MM


June 2006 — Genesys Acquires VoiceGenie


2006 — Mike Phillips and John Nguyen break off Nuance and launch Vlingo


September 2005 — ScanSoft Inc. acquires, merges with, and rebrands as Nuance Communications


May 2005 — Microsoft launches Microsoft Speech Server


January 2004 — James Siminoff and William Price found PhoneTag


2003 — ScanSoft acquires Speechworks


December 2001 — Scansoft acquires Lernout & Hauspie 


2001 — Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products goes bankrupt 


April 2000 — Orange purchases Wildfire Communications for $142MM


April 2000 — Nuance files IPO on the NASDAQ under the symbol NUAN


2000 — L&H Acquires Dragon Systems


2000 — SpeechWorks goes public


1999 — Mike McCue and Angus Davis Found Tellme Networks


1995 — Microsoft Releases its Speech API, SAPI 1.0, on Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51


1995 – The Quarterly ‘Speech Technology Magazine’ begins publication


October 1994 – Wildfire Communications launches the Wildfire Assistant


1994 — Nuance Communications founded as a spin-off of SRI International’s Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory


1994 — Mike Phillips and Bill O’Farrell found SpeechWorks


1987 — Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie found Lernout & Hauspie


1982 — Husband and Wife Dr. James Baker and Dr. Janet M. Baker found Dragon Systems


1981 — The Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS) is founded


1952 — Davis, Biddulph, and Balashek at Bell Laboratories build Audrey, Speech Recognizer for strings of digits


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