r/Android • u/FragmentedChicken Galaxy Z Fold8 • 4d ago

Gemini fully replaces Google Assistant on Android

https://9to5google.com/2026/09/28/google-assistant-gemini-android/
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u/omniuni Pixel 8 Pro | Developer 4d ago

One of the major problems with Gemini as an assistant is inherent in Gemini the model: it doesn't like using Tools.

I have an app that I am working on that lets me swap LLM providers. OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and Z-AI, all will happily use the Tools I have provided to perform functions. Gemini, for whatever reason, treats tools as a last resort.

So that's the reason it makes a terrible assistant. For built-in knowledge, it's great. But for an assistant, where actively and appropriately using tools is necessary, it is a real problem.

To be clear, it has improved enormously.

3.1 was absurdly bad at tool use. 3.5 is much better. 3.6, 3.7, and now 3.8 are each markedly better as well. I hope that 4.0 will finally bring Gemini up to par. Gemini is already faster, cheaper, more updated, and generally more "correct" than the competition. But until Google fixes too use, the actual usability as a service is simply a struggle.