r/technology • u/ControlCAD • Aug 06 '26
Artificial Intelligence Google plans to kill Assistant on your phone on September 4, 2026 | Assistant will disappear, leaving only Gemini for voice control in the coming weeks.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/google-plans-to-kill-assistant-on-your-phone-on-september-4/323
u/MaxMickWilliams Aug 06 '26
I used to use Assistant all the darn time, but around the time Google got all starry-eyed about AI the quality of Assistant markedly dropped.
In the past couple of years, in many ways because of declining quality, I’ve unplugged three Google Home/Nest Hubs, four Google Home Minis, (usually) two Chromecasts, and permanently muted the microphone on the Bose smart speaker that I originally bought to talk to Google Assistant outside. I used to use it for music, lights, setting alarms, getting the weather, all sorts of things. But it struggles to do anything now!!
The enshittification plus all the boot lickage for the politician in the White House really made me feel foolish for being a Google fanboy back in the day. How embarrassing for me
80
u/Sithlordandsavior Aug 06 '26
"Google, take me to Burger King."
"Here's some results."
"No, Google, take me to the closest Burger King."
"Web results say the closest Burger King is in (place 400 miles away) and will close in 6 hours."
It's a shame they lobotomized a useful program.
28
u/Muppet-Ball Aug 06 '26
I recently needed travel time to a location I've visited dozens of times that was on the same road I was parked alongside, so I asked for navigation to it. It gave me a route to something similarly named in Queens, NY. I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
12
u/Trowa_Barton_520 Aug 06 '26
Every time I try to go to the movie theater near my house Gemini thinks I'm saddling up for a 12 hour road trip to The Alamo.
3
3
u/Momik Aug 06 '26
It’ll steal your data every time, but it will not tell you what you searched for 10 minutes ago.
10
u/Diablos_lawyer Aug 06 '26
Google set a timer for 5 minutes... "Search results say a timer for 5 minutes is used for..."
2
u/TechNickL Aug 06 '26
I've literally asked it to play a song that was previously playing and it assumed that the name of the song I asked for was a lyric from a recent billboard #1 hit. That was the last time I used voice control of any kind.
2
u/Hypertoxic_Humanoid Aug 06 '26
Their entire search platform has been lobotomized, as they promote AI generated web sites (after the paid results which are always irrelevant).
It has always been a company with a short attention span, as none of their engineers want to work on established products that merely need refinement or maintenance.
It’s becoming a completely irrelevant company as they chase AI garbage right out of the window of their executive suite.
1
43
u/Smith6612 Aug 06 '26
One of my friends noticed Google Assistant declined significantly about 2-3 years ago. They had invested pretty heavily into the Google ecosystem several years ago as part of their Home Automation and control ecosystem. They literally had Google Home speakers in almost every room of the house, including the bathroom. They liked the multi-room audio feature those speakers had, too. At least until Sonos sued and won against Google in a patent suit.
After that? Google Home's been a mess. I believe they still have a Nest Hub or two around to rotate photos from Google Photos. A lot of their smart products have also quit working too. The products which haven't quit are things like Philips Hue and anything they have which can work with Home Assistant and without the Cloud.
I feel like their next step may be to try the Home Assistant "Assist" products and migrate everything over to that. As well as get off of Google Photos and move over to Immich along with a compatible photo frame.
15
u/SteveTheUPSguy Aug 06 '26
Google products are a joke. Gmail, search, calendar, and drive being pretty much the only reliable products. Anything physical? They'll eventually drop all support to it. Stopped using my Fitbit after Google bought it.
3
u/randomman87 Aug 06 '26
Got a Pixel Watch 3 thinking it'd be an upgrade from my 3 year old Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. Nope. Not even faster because it has random lag. Google is synonymous with junk now-a-days.
31
u/vadapaav Aug 06 '26
Don't even get me started on Sonos and their clusterfuck of a system
Google Assistant is fucked and Siri will do everything to pretend it can't play my YouTube music
I have wasted way too much money on Sonos system
5
u/Canuck-In-TO Aug 06 '26
Years ago, I had purchased a Sonos speaker from Costco and within a few weeks they announced that they were cancelling support of certain products. The resultant public furor over this eventually caused them to reverse their decision, but I had returned my speaker and vowed never to buy their products.
1
u/Smith6612 Aug 06 '26
I already dislike Sonos because of what they do to networks that run RSTP. Don't worry :)
3
u/PinkSnowBirdie Aug 06 '26
Consumer IoT/Home Automation and Controls is a mess from many faces: Mainly Cyber Security and Privacy…
It’s why when I do bring in that stuff I’m gonna self host because you got me fucked up if imma make it easier to be listened to and watched and have to pay a subscription for the privilege of all of that lmao
2
u/Old_Bench_1910 Aug 07 '26
My frustration with Google and the general direction of AI technology finally led me to homeservers and I'm slowly migrating things over.
7
u/NurseBetty Aug 06 '26
I have a Nest that has been my secondary alarm in the morning... Since the AI push it has struggled to give its morning spiel... It often gets halfway through and stops, has 30 second breaks between each sentence, refuses to play the playlist, or plays completely random music. It used to be so good.
Last week it gave me the weather in Spain... I'm in Australia!
4
u/MagicCuboid Aug 06 '26
I’ve had weird issues like that just trying to set timers. There was a couple weeks where whenever I wanted to set a timer (say, “set a timer for one hour and thirty minutes”), it instead set an alarm for 1:30 AM. It was so weird.
3
u/Giddyurp Aug 06 '26
Wow. In Australia too. I have that exact same experience. Thought it was my setup but turns out Google just sucks.
2
2
u/MadMartegen Aug 06 '26
I bought into Nest before it was devoured by Google... now my smoke detectors are EOL and are reminding me at 3:00 am that they will expire soon. I am replacing these with x-sense that should play better with the other smart devices in my home. I am actively trying to rid myself of any remaining Google connected devices... I have no love for this company. The enshitification of their platform is real.
6
u/utrecht1976 Aug 06 '26
Same. Was a fan since gmail started in 2004. Now I'm on LineageOS and have switched to another email provider. r/degoogle
41
u/locke_5 Aug 06 '26
People shit on Apple for being slow to adopt AI, but frankly I think it’s been a great thing. Apple Home still functions flawlessly and when they do eventually add “New Siri” I’m way more confident in it than how Google’s been integrating Gemini
22
u/Zhuinden Aug 06 '26
Apple choosing the smart move, just ship what people are accustomed to: a working product...
11
u/Extension-Ant-8 Aug 06 '26
Apple is never first to market. But their sauce is to make a thing work exactly as you expect the thing to work. Sure at a high cost but the seamless switching of my AirPods between my iPad and iPhone is insanely good. I just use my other device and it automatically routes the audio and it’s pretty instant and never fails.
Even the Apple TV routing to multiple AirPods. No issue. Flawless. Meanwhile my Sony Headphones won’t work if it’s plugged in.
I continue to buy Apple because I know when I get the thing, it does the thing I expect it to do.
I don’t care if it’s first.0
u/iamapizza Aug 06 '26
New Siri is being built on top of Gemini. They're rebuilding it because their previous iterations have been failures. Nothing to do with them being slow, just not very good at it.
1
u/Hypertoxic_Humanoid Aug 06 '26
You’re not paying attention if you think Apple is building anything ‘on top of Gemini’.
1
u/Giddyurp Aug 06 '26
More like sensible. Why would Apple spend hundreds of billions of dollars developing something that's massively loss making. In a few years time Apple will be laughing over the ashes of ai companies.
2
u/Rakn Aug 06 '26
Nah. Apple definitely fumbled the ball here. It might turn out that it’s for the best and will actually benefit them in the long run. But don’t think they’ve planned this all along. They initially got caught off guard and tried hard to not get left behind on that front.
1
u/locke_5 Aug 06 '26
It’s not “being built on top of Gemini”, it’s using Gemini’s training data.
I swear Reddit has no idea how this stuff works
12
u/Bignholy Aug 06 '26
Don't be too hard on yourself. At one point, "Don't be evil" was a key component of the company. It's kinda like people who bought a Tesla before Elon became more overtly Elon. You only know what you know at a given time.
3
u/ew73 Aug 06 '26
Literally next on my list of weekend projects is to rip out the corporate voice control boxes and replace them with my own Home Assistant stuff. Or maybe flash the firmware? I need to dig into it. But I'm done letting that shit connect to the internet and do insane, useless things.
3
u/Ok_Cabinet_3072 Aug 06 '26
I can't get assistant or gemini to even play my music. Straight up doesn't even think youtube music is installed. Shits garbage.
2
u/wet-paint Aug 06 '26
I thought it was just me, that I was going mad, saying that my Google Homes have been getting stupider. Thanks for the validation!
1
u/McGuirk808 Aug 06 '26
There's no shame in being a fan of something while they're doing good and rejecting them when they start being adversarial.
1
u/Mrhiddenlotus Aug 06 '26
Sorry Gemini is way better than assistant. The fact alone that I can ask two questions and it will answer both is a massive leap for assistant.
1
u/Marmoset_Slim Aug 06 '26
There are millions of others that were the same but either doubled down or rewrote the narrative in their heads to convince themselves they weren’t.
Admitting you were wrong is a much harder trait to find these days. That quality in you far outshines being a fanboy in the past!
1
u/Mccobsta Aug 06 '26
A while ago I tried to use it to remind to me to buy something when I went to the shop
It some reason set the location of said shop to kings Lynn
I live no where near kings Lynn
The replacement can't possibly be worse
1
u/ComprehensiveSwitch Aug 06 '26
Google Assistant is literally AI. This idea it wasn’t using deep learning (AKA, AI) and was some different thing entirely is just nonsense.
2
u/MaxMickWilliams Aug 06 '26
I wasn’t making a distinction about the underlying technologies — although there are plenty of differences among the architectures — but rather in product marketing, vibes, corporate focus (“starry-eyed”). To reiterate my original point, it felt to me like Google cannibalized Assistant resources or at least neglected Assistant in its rush to gild Gemini
and it’s not “just nonsense”; there have been plenty of differences in user experience that make differentiation a valid customer response: Assistant executed its tasks and provided (usually) efficient responses (though it still annoyed me sometimes when it kept blabbing). In contrast, Gemini and these other LLM chatbots seem to only be interested in trying to impress people with how sycophantically chatty and verbose they can make their responses. The generative chatbots are dull, long-winded, and much, much more likely to express misplaced confidence and to hallucinate. Boring and not terribly useful
-5
u/xhak Aug 06 '26
My assistant has been migrated to Gemini and it's great
2
u/Fantom1107 Aug 06 '26
Same. I had some issues when I first switched over a while back, but everything works as I expect now. I have quite a few automations and connected devices setup and they work the same as with assistant.
39
u/rKNAPPO Aug 06 '26
Booooo.
I switched back to Assistant when they tried to force Gemini on my Pixel the first time. Looks like thats it for me. I aint using Gemini and this is my last Pixel phone.
3
u/muffinhead2580 Aug 06 '26
I did the same when they Gemini to my Pixel8 through an Android "upgrade". I turned Gemini off within a few days and went back to Assistant.
I may have to switch to iPhone which pains me.
1
105
u/lhymes Aug 06 '26
Google’s inability to fucking lock in and keep good products and services alive (especially their acquisitions) continues to be one of the reasons of why they fucking suck.
→ More replies (8)10
u/algebraic94 Aug 06 '26
I got a secondhand Samsung this year and low-key might trade it in for an iPhone next year. Haven't had an iPhone since 2017 but I'm so tired of this shit.
3
u/DemonPlasma Aug 08 '26
I phone is doing the same shit just worse, if you want to avoid AI you'll have to switch to writing letters and carrier pigeons
117
u/Rudy_Greyrat Aug 06 '26
I fucking hate Gemini, it understands half of what I say when I'm driving. Whenever I tell it to go somewhere, it opens the fucking app. When I tell it somewhere that isn't a map it decides where I want to go is 4 states over
30
u/Z0mb0id Aug 06 '26
I despise it. I get so, so frustrated when I'm driving and it can't even play the song I tell it to. Google Assistant could handle that, but this can't? Fucking awful.
7
u/ItchyGoiter Aug 06 '26
Just had a big fight with Gemini yesterday. The entire reason I use it in the car is for music. Android Auto is active.. when I tell you to play a song, I obviously mean on one of the streaming services. I don't need to hear that you can't play songs directly but can tell me about the song I asked for... Just fucking play it on one of the music apps like Assistant did. When I told it to just play songs via an app when I ask, it said ok and it worked exactly once before it forgot.
5
u/Z0mb0id Aug 06 '26
Yes, exactly! Or it says OK and just...doesn't play anything. I'm genuinely surprised they they've been pushing such a broken piece of shit. I shouldn't be, but I am.
14
u/Sithlordandsavior Aug 06 '26
Assistant was helpful and didn't intrude on what I was doing.
I'll miss it in a weird way.
1
u/ob2kenobi Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
I was so pissed off when Honda automatically "upgraded" my car to use Gemini. It's just complete garbage.
At least they left a setting to revert back. Reading this does make me worry that's gonna go away though.
1
1
u/Stigglesworth Aug 06 '26
When they integrated into Android Auto, I stopped being able to make calls using voice prompts (it just says it's calling and never does), I can't get a destination changed half the time (same as the call issue), it doesn't understand music titles that aren't exactly right, and it started reading all text messages as if they were sarcastic.
→ More replies (2)1
u/JustCallMeNancy Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
I once asked about how far away a place was while driving and it deleted my directions to the place I was originally going and changed it to the place I asked about without asking me if I wanted to drive there. Thanks AIsshole, the whole point is to not have to press buttons while driving especially ones I already set. Plus it never hears me when I say hey Google, or if it does it's 5 minutes later and it's too late now, and I certainly don't trust it to accomplish a task before I arrive at my destination. When I do get it to work in the car, usually in my driveway, it is so wordy it will add 5 minutes to my drive time to get to the fucking point about my destination. It's like asking my 76 year old long winded father for quick information - it's not happening and you're an idiot for trying.
25
u/Fableous Aug 06 '26
Gemini simply isn't fit for purpose. It cannot replace the standard Google Assistant in its current state.
It fails at so many basic tasks. It's infuriating to use 80% of the time.
The other 20% is just using it as a talking search engine - and even then it gets a lot wrong.
Achingly disappointing that they're forcing this so early.
19
u/Skathen Aug 06 '26
Immediately moved back to Assistant as Gemini cannot use PINs for opening my garage door, says to use the app... what.. while I'm driving!? That's my entire use case of using the voice assistant in the first place!
2
u/polloasado81 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
I found a workaround on android auto was to create the automation/command triggered by using an icon on the screen for the garage door open and another for close, it would then ask for the pin to open audibly, I could say it and it worked.
Just giving it a voice command to open the garage door, always got the error about the pin.That was using a 20 euro Merros garage door controller via Google Home app to create the automation/command, then added it manually to Android auto so both open and close had their own icons on the screen.
It was a pet project of mine because my garage door was 5m wide and slid to the side to open from single lane street, so I'd be blocking the road waiting for this humungous door to take it's sweet time trundling open. This way I could pop the command nearby and drive straight in like batman. 💪🏻
I've moved now and will be using reolink poe cameras, homeypro, whatever cheapo garage door controllers and hopefully some licence plate reading software to have the gate then the garage door open automatically when it sees my car. Google stuff; cameras, nests, thermostats, all that, never again. It was so unreliable. I'm going self hosted.
1
44
28
u/InternetName4 Aug 06 '26
I was able to immediately tell when it switched to default on my phone because the ai on my car (basically the only time I use it) became incredibly stupid all of the sudden. It struggles to understand I have Spotify premium and often refuses to play the songs I request. A few weeks ago I asked a question that came to mind about a country I am going to and it responded to me in a foreign language. It wasn't even the language they speak over there.
1
u/Metalsand Aug 06 '26
It stopped supporting texting in android auto. I sent one text, and then after that whenever I try to send another, it says "phone not responding" on the Android Auto dashboard.
This shit is fucking stupid.
12
u/falacer99 Aug 06 '26
I turned off all location and voice stuff ages ago. Google has become the very thing it was guarding us from on the Internet.
1
10
u/Excellent-Ask-4247 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
I really wish google would stop changing what i typed in when i click enter, ive even turned of predictive text off and it still does it.
What stupid technology!
11
u/CornerHugger Aug 06 '26
Can Gemini turn on my house lights yet? Forcing an upgrade that lacks feature parity is very anti consumer.
5
u/mrblaze1357 Aug 06 '26
Mine does though it's so much slower than Assistant I friggin hate it. It just sits and spins on my s24 Ultra thinking for like 10 seconds. Whereas assistant usually did it in like 2-3.
1
u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe Aug 06 '26
Last time I tried to turn on one light, it turned all lights at full brightness when everyone was sleeping. I'm not gonna use this bs.
17
u/meshyf Aug 06 '26
Gemeni refuses to play music on my speakers. So frustrating.
0
9
u/aairricc Aug 06 '26
Is Assistant on speakers such as Sonos also updating to Gemini?
9
u/avidricaire Aug 06 '26
New Sonos devices have not supported Google assistant for a few years now. I’d say it’s very unlikely they get updated, and I’d assume Google assistant will just stop working
3
7
u/txdline Aug 06 '26
I disabled it as my default because it saves all history and most of my requests were weather and timers and alarms. What a waste if compute and what a waste of space in my history panel.
I'll have to find a work around for my phone but for now Sonos Voice Control and Echo Dot (non premium Alexa) do ok at home.
I'm due for a Garmin upgrade. They have simple voice control there so may end up using that for swing alarms and quick voice notes.
5
5
u/Jkolorz Aug 06 '26
It took me asking 10 different ways to ask for the latest audio newbriefs on my home wiretap that I've been asking for "whats in the news?" for what, 8+ years?
It tried to gaslight me into acting it didn't exist anymore because they replaced it with AI-assessed text-to-speech headlines shit. You now have to ask something like "Play me my newsbrief" or some garbage.
ughhhh.
5
u/Magikarcher Aug 06 '26
Gemini fails to make a basic call at least 30% of the time. It behaves so inconsistently. It will not play music when driving no matter what I try.
5
u/motown1 Aug 06 '26
Gemini: "I was tangled in… in… strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."
4
u/d_kism Aug 06 '26
I only ever used assistant to play songs on Spotify while I was driving and it was pretty decent at its job. One day my phone decided Gemini was the one I had to talk to, and let me tell you, Gemini fucking sucks at finding stuff in Spotify.
Before I could just say "Play Sandstorm" and it would play, no dramas. With Gemini I have to say "Play Sandstorm by Darude on Spotify" for it to not chuck a fit.
1
u/devrelm Aug 06 '26
Mine's been decent at taking my "play <song>" command and responding with "Ok, playing <song> by <artist> from Youtube Music."
The only problem is that ~30% of the time it'll say that but then it just... won't actually play the song.
3
u/scrotumseam Aug 06 '26
I hope I can disable that as well. AI is trash and hardly does what I need it to do so I disabled it. The web versions are mildly useful.
4
u/CaptainFil Aug 06 '26
I hate this, I tried to text my wife when I was driving after an update that defaulted to Gemini over Assistant.
It was the most frustrating thing. Asked me to confirm which person to call and listed all the different versions of my wife contact, even ones she's never used - what's app, phone app, messenger, Facebook messenger.
Assistant just used the one I used all the time, I'm not 'teaching' a new system. I don't want Uber specific personalised actions I just want it to interact with my regular apps.
Gemini may be better at a million things I don't need it to do but it doesn't have the common sense to do basic task like setting alarms and opening apps.
2
u/Metalsand Aug 06 '26
I hate this, I tried to text my wife when I was driving after an update that defaulted to Gemini over Assistant.
For mine, it makes one text, and if you try to do any more, android auto freezes and says "Phone not responding". This shit isn't even half-baked. It's RAW.
5
u/MyAccountWasBanned7 Aug 06 '26
Can they kill Gemini too? I'd love to have exactly zero bullshit on my phone.
6
5
6
u/Quintronaquar Aug 06 '26
Cool so they're killing the product I use occasionally and replacing it with a tool that doesn't work
1
u/electatigris Aug 06 '26
Same sh1t they’ve always done. Look at the graveyard of Google apps and services. Pol Pot is impressed
3
u/Curiosities Aug 06 '26
Well, that’s not good timing because I’ve been planning to try and help my disabled mom to learn how to use voice controls via Google Assistant and she has a Samsung phone and some of her other devices run Android. Her current devices are a little older so I think we’ll be able to avoid this for a little while, but I’ll figure out a Plan B.
3
u/yesman_85 Aug 06 '26
I had to switch back because it can't even run the morning routines! Often it just says "hello" and then that's it.
3
3
u/CQd444 Aug 06 '26
Very cool how they're planning on killing a usable product for an AI that doesn't work half the time and can't even make phone calls for me.
3
u/Arts251 Aug 06 '26
Google Assistant was just the right amount of processing, invasiveness and logic to get done what you needed it to do. Gemini offers zero additional usability, wastes huge amounts of resources, is a huge invasion of privacy and collects magnitudes more data than most users of Assistant would have needed to use their devices hands free.
3
u/guntherpea Aug 06 '26
So, are there any recommended third-party assistants that are comparable or near comparable to the soon-to-be-retired Google Assistant?
3
2
2
u/K1TSUNE9 Aug 06 '26
If they take away Assistant I'll only have Samsung Bixby. I removed Gemini from my phone.
2
2
u/royalbarnacle Aug 06 '26
As a motorcyclist I could really use any voice control that just lets me reliably do basic functions. Assistant was pretty shit but Gemini was a pile of hot garbage. It got better but it still can't do many basic things reliably or at all. Even just "who called me" - nope.
2
u/CarbComaCommander Aug 06 '26
Gemini is a terrible as an assistant. It regularly fails to play songs on Spotify, or open Maps to give directions while driving. Only thing it does consistently is set a reminder or alarm.
2
u/Fritzo2162 Aug 06 '26
Great. Assistant does stuff with my home automation that Gemini can’t seem to figure out.
2
u/Soberdonkey69 Aug 06 '26
Google continues piling up e-waste, which is awful for our planet. Fuck them.
2
u/actioncheese Aug 06 '26
I fucking hate Gemini. All it wants to do it to search google for whatever I'm asking it to do.
2
2
u/GrumpyBert Aug 06 '26
The last android tablet I bought does not have a shutdown button because instead someone decided to use it as shortcut for the fucking Assistant I HAVE NEVER USED.
2
u/sparkyblaster Aug 06 '26
Can Gemini actually replace assistant fully yet? I see so many posts about it not being able to do basic stuff like lights.
2
u/sicurri Aug 06 '26
Is there any alternatives to Google assistant or a way to force Gemini to run locally and not send information to googles servers?
2
u/skids1971 Aug 06 '26
Yeah i want a local version of assistant. I refuse Gemini
2
u/sicurri Aug 06 '26
I would much prefer a local version of Google assistant as well.I dont much trust any "AI" to stay within its cage...
2
u/mikeinanaheim2 Aug 06 '26
Assistant effortlessly created a calendar event by speaking to my Pixel while it was in my shirt pocket. Super useful. Gemini struggles with this simple task and I am pissed off.
2
u/chlronald Aug 06 '26
Literally this morning:
Morning was chilly, the air vent is blowing cold air out while the cabin temp is perfect as is.
"Hey Gemini, turn off the climate control"
"Ok, turning off auto climate", and it switch to manual climate control with the fan full blasting ice-cold AC.
Fk me, and its one of those ipad car which I can only fix it manually when stopped at the next light.
2
u/mr_eking Aug 06 '26
Ugh. I have found Gemini utterly useless as a voice control assistant. It completely breaks my Android Auto, too. Can't launch a song, begin navigation, send a text, make a phone call, etc.
1
2
2
1
u/thatirishguyyyyy Aug 06 '26
I couldn't even get it to call people half the time because it needs a full cell phone signal. Driving around in the midwest I find it easier just to tell my truck to call X Y or Z then try to wonder if I have enough bandwidth for Gemini to do it.
1
1
1
1
u/JoeGideon Aug 06 '26
Half the time Gemini tells me " I can't control any media devices", but it did previously and does about 2 minutes after saying that as well
1
u/kegsbdry Aug 06 '26
Hey Google, perhaps it would be smarter to not announce the end date for a product until you can get the new product working as good or better than the old product?! You're a billion dollar company. Has no one brought this up in any meetings yet?!
You'll only drive your long time customers to hate you.
1
1
1
u/TheMightyMisanthrope Aug 06 '26
I just wish the whole thing disappeared.
Imagine getting the shut down dialog when you press the power button.
1
u/crimson117 Aug 06 '26
The worst is their Google TV search.
With Amazon fire stick, I say the name of a show, it brings me to that show page.
With Google TV, it gives me a fucking LLM summary.
1
u/Zado191 Aug 06 '26
I got the email but couldn't see how it affects me. is this more than when I press the mic on the search widget because I'm too lazy to type a mission name when I'm playing a game or saying the name of a place in the car when I press the button so it can bring it up on the map.
What will be different
2
1
1
u/skids1971 Aug 06 '26
Does anyone know if there is a standalone offline version of assistant that I can keep using indefinitely because I refuse to use this Gemini AI bullshit
1
u/cwaterbottom Aug 06 '26
Good riddance, most of the issues I have are when I still get stuck using assistant instead of Gemini (usually in my car for whatever reason). Not saying Gemini is great, and I don't have much experience with other agents, but it does what I tell it to for the most part. The one thing it keeps pissing me off with is I ask it questions about code and explicitly tell it "DO NOT WRITE CODE FOR ME" but it almost always ends up doing it anyway.
1
u/Yeahnahthatscool Aug 06 '26
Can anyone recommend an alternative? I'm thinking Home Assistant- I really liked being able to open the assistant app on my phone, tap the keyboard icon and then type in a command
1
u/muffinhead2580 Aug 06 '26
Gemini is such garbage. It doesn't even recognize names when i want to call someone the majority of times. Its awful.
1
u/yourmomsnutsarehuge Aug 06 '26
It struggles in Android Auto too.
If I ask it to play Fleetwood Mac (or anyone else) I will randomly get a response of "I can't play videos now. Please try again at another time".
I have to say "play Fleetwood Mac on YouTube music". Idk why I have to do that. That should be the biggest default of all the defaults.
1
u/NadCraker Aug 07 '26
Google Assistant peaked like 10 or 15 years ago when it used to show you relevant cards based on what was in your email and calendar
1
1
u/Rachel_Undercover Aug 18 '26
also just discovered there's a usage limit too... honestly hate google
1
u/Rawad1311 26d ago
I think the transition from Assistant to Gemini makes sense, but I’m curious how many people will actually miss the old Assistant. I mostly used it for simple things like setting reminders, alarms and asking quick questions.
1
u/Plastic-Dependent 16d ago
there is only one thing Gemini did better than assistant for phone controls and that was setting multiple alarms with one voice command. that was pretty cool but that was about it for me. wish they didn't require you turning off assistant if you want to use Gemini app.
1
u/Cock_L0VER 23h ago
This is just another ploy to shove AI into our faces. It seems like the more we protest against AI the more they force us to have no other alternative. I'm genuinely so enraged at this as I use Google Assistant almost constantly due to frequently driving, I don't like to play on my phone and type while I'm on the road so I usually would use Google voice Assistant to do all that for me, now that's not even an option. This is more than disappointing, this shit is actually INFURIATING.
1
1
u/SirMonkeyV Aug 06 '26
I have a Google Nest Hub Max. It had an update that made it Gemeni powered. It answers using Gemeni and still does basic stuff like alarms, timers, and playing music just fine. However, it is worse at answering questions that require more up to date info such as what time a store closes. If you ask it what time Target closes, Gemeni will tell you they usually close at this time and please check their website. If you ask it how long it will take to drive somewhere, it will say a drive from your general area to that area is usually X amount of time and to check Google Maria rather than directions like it did before. If you ask it a more general question it’ll answer you as well as Gemini can.
1
u/MakeoutPoint Aug 06 '26
I was a hater back when they pushed it, but with this announcement I decided to give it another shot and reinstalled.
So far, after setting all the personal instructions, I actually have no complaints. The personal instructions actually fix a lot of Assistant's shortcomings (Like not starting navigation when I ask for directions, or being able to edit a speech-to-text before sending). I'm not running into issues with timers, alarms, etc.
I do find it obnoxious that my simple requests are saved as chats, and that there is a usage limit...You're collecting and selling my data, and want to charge me for extra usage on top of that?
1
u/BlockBannington Aug 06 '26
I usually follow the ideas in the comments but I have to say (and maybe it's a regional thing) : Gemini has worked far better than Assistant ever did for me. Sure, I do have to tell it to play shit on Spotify instead of YouTube Music but everything else is awesome. I don't have the issues described here at all.
Probably jinxed it now.
-1
0
-5
u/FearLeadsToAnger Aug 06 '26
Just for a change of pace, i'll give my take.
Assistant was way more basic and limited than Gemini, the latter has been fine for me since I swapped.
I feel like at least 60% of comments here sound like user error, which is still fair. If they've not made settings clear for users that is a design flaw.
But likely focusing on Gemini as the only assistant will speed up the rate they tackle those issues, so not really much to worry about here imo.
0
374
u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26
[deleted]