We’re upgrading Google Assistant users on mobile to Gemini, offering a new kind of help only possible with the power of AI.
Gemini is hardly an uprade to Assistant, though. Gemini can’t do any task automation (aka the one thing Google Assistant could do) because it’s a LLM that most likely doesn’t even ‘know’ that it’s being run on a phone…
They already fucked up assistant so bad that it can’t even set timers anymore… )):
Yes. This is why I’ve disabled it repeatedly when it supplants my assistant.
If they remove automation, well, that was the one thing standing between me and de-googling.
Well, too bad, i have replaced Google on my phone.
What setup you currently running?
I find Gemini has better communication and comprehension ability compared with assistant, but can do even less when it comes to controlling the phone. No reminders, no calendar events, no messages, no integration with anything. Just talking.
I would have preferred assistant talk and understand better, instead of a completly gimped alternative that does that and nothing more.
Exactly, and maybe I’m a outlier, but I have no intention of speaking to my device like it’s a human. Ever.
Integrations with the phone’s functionality is key. I don’t care how clever the brain is, it needs to talk to the rest of the body.
I’m somewhat of a boomer, what sort of things can you do through assistant?
I use it to set reminders and alarms. I don’t keep the “OK google” stuff on, I just hold the power button for a second or two until the assistant pops up (or at least used to, I haven’t done it in a while so I’m not sure if it’s stupid gemini now instead), then just say like, “remind me friday at 3pm to call the doctor” and it does it.
Set or change alarms, add reminders to your calendar, ask about those things, send text messages, start phone calls, have it read out last text messages received.
When I was a truck driver, my wife could test me, and I could just listen to a transcript of what she sent instead of calling her and asking what she typed.
“Hey Google, read my last text”
“Hey Google, send a text to <wife>, 'Quit texting me while I’m driving, woman!” Stuff like that. 🤣
Usually quick things in the car when I don’t have hands.
- Ask about weather
- Set a reminder
- Reply to a text
Mine does reminders and events now. It can also do Google home stuff.
If this is pushed through a silent update then I’ll use adb to remove it. I don’t need a useless ai assistant hogging precious memory.
I feel bad for for the folks who have their phone gimped overnight and they won’t have no clue why. So many people with older phones are going to need to upgrade because of this forced update. Talk about e-waste.
It probably already is. AICore is a service thats been getting snuck on the andoids for a couple of months, ever since AndroidSystemSafety was push on silently, which is effectively like recall and scans all your photos and files in the background.
Thanks for letting know about system safety, I just removed it. Play store said my xperia isn’t compatible with AICore so I got lucky with that. Wish I could switch to lineage buty bootloader is locked.
Anything else I should remove?
Gemini might be good at something, but I’ll never know because it is bad at all the things I have ever used the assistant for. If it’s good at anything at all, it’s something I don’t need or want.
Looking forward to 2027 when Google Gemini is replaced by Google Assistant (not to be confused with today’s Google Assistant, totally different product).
Seriously, I tried Gemini for a while but it is mostly useless. It can it open my apps, cannot control Home Assistant, cannot send a message to someone.
Yeah, it has a total lack of any of the integrations that made Assistant actually useful.
Even if an LLM offers meaningful improvements on the core conversational elements of Assistant, launching it without all the needed integrations is idiotic and completely hamstrings the functionality.
I swapped to Gemini for a month or two. Kept thinking to myself “maybe I’m not speaking clearly,” and other justifications. Turns out it just sucks. Now I just do everything manually. Fuck em.
🤣 Gemini is the worst of all the ais. It can’t even do the most basic shit like set reminders.
Google has fallen so hard. They are just pure ad garbage now.
Timers are literally the only thing I use it for.
Just like Google Assistant
I got the change and immediately put it back to Google assistant. I don’t want AI. I want to tell my phone when to set my alarm clock.
How so I do this? Pixel 9
Settings> type “assistant settings” in search> digital assistants from google> click on Google assistant
Tysm
No fucking thanks! Gemini is garbage.
But Google likes garbage…
I use Google Assistant a lot. I tried the Gemini Assistant on my phone and it was an exercise in frustration.
Me: (after pausing the tv) “Resume TV”
Google: (resumes playback on TV)
Gemini: “TV not recognised. Please say the device name” or even worse… “A resume is essential when you’re looking for a job in television. Your resume should blah blah…”
Me: (with phone locked) “set a timer for xxx”
Google: “setting a timer for xxx, starting now”
Gemini: “I’m unable to set timers, please unlock your phone, open xxx and (lengthy step by step instructions)”, or “setting a timer for yyy” (completely wrong time).
They activated Gemini at work to auto-complete stuff in emails. I work in IT, and I was not aware of that. I was typing the sentence “we will need some help” and was about to add “in the project blah blah” but Gemini came with its amazing auto-completion and added something like “in the street where they sell sausages”.
AI was a mistake, and I didn’t use it since that day. Waste of time, waste of everything.
Is there a viable replacement to google assistant that’s self hosted or local?
Home assistant
Once again, thank goodness for GrapheneOS.
Seriously considering this for my next phone. I currently have a Pixel 6, so I’m thinking I’ll get another Pixel, try grapheneOS on the 6 to get comfortable with it, before doing it to the new phone.
Never have I appreciated not having features so much.
Google Assistant: Let’s build a product around functionality.
Gemini: Let’s build functionality around a product.
Any guess which method works better?
Works better to satisfy shareholders?
Good thing I never used Google Assistant then.
Same here. Really looking forward to not using their new product. How exciting.
I feel bad for visually impaired.
Or people who don’t have, or have lost, motor function in their hands.
Astute point, they’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater here and hurting the disabled community to push their inferior product that nobody really asked for.
Just because I don’t use it doesn’t mean others who need it also don’t.
It happens, we forget the sheet diversity of experiences because we’re human. I try to have multiperspectivity, but even that is limited to one’s own experiences and imaginative abilities, on the best days.
I feel jealous for the hearing impaired. Just think of everyone and they’re dog showing off how dumb it is all the time.
I actually use it a bunch for setting reminders and it does pretty good at that.
For sure, but I am also capable of doing that with my thumbs… which is what I do.
Also except my Pixel running Graphene OS.
Will they hold the power button hostage again?
Yes
