GEO for Voice Assistants: How to Appear When Someone Asks Siri or Alexa (2026)

Between 2025 and 2026, Amazon, Google and Apple announced assistants built on language models that can answer open-ended and recommendation questions. Announcement and deployed availability are not the same thing, and the rollout status is different in each case; we note it below.

Voice changes the format: on a screen, AI can list five options, while a spoken answer usually names fewer.

The 2025-2026 handover: which models power each assistant

Alexa+ uses several models, including Claude. Amazon introduced Alexa+ on February 26, 2025 with an architecture that connects several language models, and Anthropic confirmed the same day that Claude helps power it through Amazon Bedrock. Status: US rollout announced by Amazon; check availability in your market. If you work on your Claude visibility, also review how to appear in Claude.

The new Siri will be based on Gemini (announced). In their joint statement of January 12, 2026, Apple and Google announced that the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Gemini models and will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri expected that year. The statement announces future features; on its own it does not establish their availability in each market or explain how they will use web sources. Financial and technical terms have not been made public. For brands, what matters is that Siri and Spotlight web answers rely on crawling by Applebot.

Google Home moves to Gemini. Google announced on October 1, 2025 that Gemini for Home replaces Google Assistant on smart speakers and displays, with early access from that month and some features reserved for Google Home Premium. Answers stop being predefined commands and become syntheses generated by Gemini: how to appear in Gemini.

ChatGPT also has a voice mode. It lets users talk to the assistant out loud; OpenAI does not publish separate voice usage figures.

The full map of models and who is behind each one is in the LLM ecosystem beyond ChatGPT and Gemini.

How many users there are (and which figures not to repeat)

Unsupported figures circulate on this topic. "8.4 billion voice assistants in use" is a 2020 projection repeated as if it were measured data, and "31% of searches are voice searches" has no clear primary source.

As a reference, eMarketer's August 2024 forecast estimates 145.1 million voice assistant users in the US in 2023 and projects 170.3 million in 2028. We have not found an equivalent reliable figure for other markets that we can cite.

The audience has existed for years; what changes is that assistants can now answer recommendation questions and, in some cases, shopping questions.

Where each assistant looks for information (and why Google alone is not enough)

Each assistant builds its answers from different components. This is what is publicly documented or announced; where the provider does not publish it, we say so:

Two implications. First: checking Google is not enough; each assistant may depend on different indexes, so it helps to have correct presence in Bing Webmaster Tools and in the maps and local directories your audience uses. Second: Applebot's documentation states that its crawling is used for Apple search features, including Siri and Spotlight. A robots.txt that blocks Applebot prevents Apple from crawling your site for those features.

6 actions to get into voice answers

1. Audit your coverage across the indexes. Verify indexing and rankings in Google, sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools, and check that your robots.txt does not block Applebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot or Claude-SearchBot if you want to appear in their search features.

2. Keep local data consistent. Use the same name, address and phone number in Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Yelp or other local directories and on your website. A discrepancy between sources can lead an answer to give the wrong detail.

3. Complete schema, with nuance. Organization or LocalBusiness on the homepage, FAQPage on key pages, Product if you sell. And Speakable? Google keeps it in beta and limited to news content, so for most businesses it is not a priority. Technical details are in the schema markup for AI guide.

4. Write answers that can be read aloud. Keep the initial answer brief enough to be understood aloud: give each important question a direct, short answer before you develop the topic. Read it aloud to check it makes sense without the table or image next to it. Full techniques: how to write content AI will cite.

5. Review your featured snippets. Google Assistant often read the featured snippet in voice answers. We do not know how much weight they carry in Gemini-based assistants, but they still show which pages answer a specific question well.

6. If you sell physical products, optimize your Amazon catalog. Alexa+ answers shopping questions from Amazon's catalog. Descriptive titles, complete attributes and reviews with text give those answers information they can use.

Applebot, user-initiated fetchers and search bots use different tokens, so validate which of them actually reach your site with an AI crawler access audit using logs, robots.txt and llms.txt.

How to measure your presence in voice assistants

The method is the same as for chatbots, with the question set adapted to how people speak: "what's the best [category] in [city]?", "which [product] do you recommend for [case]?". Ask Siri, Alexa+ and Gemini periodically and record three things: the mention rate, the description (exactly what the answer says about you) and the source when the assistant cites one. The full framework is in the GEO metrics.

A realistic expectation: voice answers are less auditable than chat (no public transcript, no stable source list), so measure the trend, not an exact snapshot.

FAQ

Which AI model powers each voice assistant in 2026?

Alexa+ combines several models, including Claude through Amazon Bedrock. Apple and Google announced in January 2026 that Apple's next models will be based on Gemini, including a more personalized Siri; that is an announcement, not a verified rollout. Google has been replacing Assistant with Gemini for Home on speakers and displays since October 2025.

Wasn't voice search a fad that never took off?

Many circulating figures are recycled projections. What is new is capability: LLM-based assistants answer shopping and recommendation questions. eMarketer estimated 145.1 million US users in 2023 and projects 170.3 million in 2028; the channel exists, and it now also answers recommendation questions.

Where does each assistant get the information for its answers?

Siri: Applebot crawling for its search features. Alexa+: Amazon does not publicly document its web index; for shopping it uses Amazon's catalog. Gemini: Google's index and knowledge graph. That is why it is worth reviewing your presence beyond Google.

Does Speakable schema help you appear in voice answers?

Google keeps it in beta and limited to news. For most businesses the basics are more useful: FAQPage, consistent Organization/LocalBusiness markup and brief question-and-answer content.

How does my local business appear when someone asks "best X near me" by voice?

Assistants use local listings (Google Business Profile, Apple Maps or other directories) and your website. What you can control: the same contact details in every source, reviews with descriptive text and correct LocalBusiness schema.

How do I measure whether voice assistants mention my brand?

Define your customer's question set, ask the assistants periodically and track mention rate and description. Featured snippets can serve as a complementary indicator.

Measuring voice separately from text models

Mentio analyzes, depending on the plan, your brand's presence in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity through their text models. It does not measure the spoken answers of Siri, Alexa+ or Google Home. Sharing a model provider with Claude or Gemini does not turn text results into a measurement of those assistants: their answers depend on other systems, sources and formats, so they need the direct, separate measurement described above.

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