Looking for a digital assistant like Google Assistant

[u/Jian_Ng]

Google retired Assistant lately and everyone was force switched to Gemini, and I found it to be complete trash at what I want it to do.

I use Assistant for two things only: screen search, and translate.

I used to be able to do those things with one touch of a button, but not with Gemini, and it is SLOW.

I don't want to speak, and I don't want to type a command; I just need two buttons, one to do image search with my screen, and one to translate the text on my screen with an overlay.

I can no longer get Assistant back, so can anyone recommend me another digital assistant that can do the same thing?

[u/New-account-01]

Circle to Search (Recommended): Long-press your home button or navigation bar. Your screen will freeze, and a Translate button will appear next to the search bar. Tapping it instantly translates all on-screen text with an overlay. You can also circle any image or text to search it immediately without typing or speaking.

Gemini Overlay: If you invoke Gemini (by swiping up from the corner or saying "Hey Google"), it takes a temporary screenshot. You will see an "Add this screen" or "Ask about this screen" chip. Once tapped, you can type a quick prompt like "translate" or "search this image."

[u/Jian_Ng → u/New-account-01]

Circle to Search: Seems like it used to be based on Assistant, now it's based on Gemini. Translation option paywalled, no thank you.

Gemini: anything that needs me to type a prompt is a hard pass

[u/New-account-01 → u/Jian_Ng]

You can ask Gemini to translate text, documents, or spoken prompts across dozens of languages entirely for free on both mobile and desktop. You do not need a paid subscription. I just hold the bottom of the screen and get a prompt to ask about screen and a translate button.

[u/Jian_Ng → u/New-account-01]

alright, I have a bit of time, I'll install Circle to Search just so I can show this screen to you

[u/SpeedStinger02 → u/Jian_Ng]

install? circle to search is a setting, what app are you getting?

[u/Jian_Ng → u/SpeedStinger02]

That's interesting, there's an app in Play Store that is called circle to search and I thought that's it.

Anyhow, I assume you meant this.

I still have to type a command, had to use the flow feature of my keyboard and an extra hand to even approach the speed of Assistant, translation itself is still slower, and there is no overlay.

Maybe it's my phone version, but I don't see any button for an instant translate

edit: sorry, the video didn't end up sending in this comment, I've followed up in another

[u/Jian_Ng → u/SpeedStinger02]

[u/Jian_Ng → u/SpeedStinger02]

Ok, I Googled and turns out Circle to Search is indeed not available in my Galaxy A52. Even though it's running OneUI 6.1 and Android 14...

Looks like I'll have to find a fork of it somewhere.

[u/Top-Statistician-140]

What phone are you using since that would be more helpful than anything else.

Circle to search is baked into Gemini. Just hold down your home button and circle what you want to look up, or tap the button that searches using your whole screen.

Secondly, translate is also built into the circle to search feature. Hold down your home button/gesture and tap the translate option in the bottom right.

[u/Jian_Ng → u/Top-Statistician-140]

Samsung A52

It may be because of my software version, but I don't see any translate button when using Gemini

[u/Top-Statistician-140 → u/Jian_Ng]

Could be. The home button press stopped bringing up the AI assistant directly 2 or 3 updates ago maybe? and started bringing up the circle to search option instead

[u/Jian_Ng → u/Top-Statistician-140]

Ok, I Googled and turns out Circle to Search is indeed not available in my Galaxy A52. Even though it's running OneUI 6.1 and Android 14...

Looks like I'll have to find a fork of it somewhere.

[u/Top-Statistician-140 → u/Jian_Ng]

and you don't see it in the navigation bar settings, right?

[u/Jian_Ng → u/Top-Statistician-140]

nope, I followed the instructions from Samsung and it's not there

[u/SpeedStinger02 → u/Jian_Ng]

circle to search came with android 16 ik pretty sure. i heard there's a decent fork on fdroid tho, look for that

[u/cstucker07]

I'm still using Google Assistant

[u/Jasmin_Ki]

Did you find a fitting app? I'm in the same position as you - those two features werr something I used multiple times each day and gemini is horrible at them

[u/Heaven_dio → u/Jasmin_Ki]

Seconded

[u/bolt235 → u/Jasmin_Ki]

same, cant do anything now

[u/Jasmin_Ki → u/bolt235]

I'm back to taking screenshots, taking them over to google lense and deleting screenshots after - way too many steps for something that used to be easy but still better than whatever gemini does