US Patent 10102857 Device leadership negotiation among voice interface devices

The various implementations described herein include methods and systems for determining device leadership among voice interface devices. In one aspect, a method is performed at an electronic device that includes microphones, a speaker, processors, and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors. The electronic device: (1) detects a voice input; (2) determines a first quality score for the detected voice input; (3) receives quality scores generated by other electronic devices for detection of the voice input by the other electronic devices; (4) in accordance with a determination that the first quality score is not the highest amongst the quality scores for the voice input, identifies a criterion associated with the voice input; and (5) in accordance with a determination that the identified criterion is the most relevant to the electronic device, responds to the detected input.