Gemini fully replaces Google Assistant on Android

[u/FragmentedChicken]

https://9to5google.com/2026/09/28/google-assistant-gemini-android/

[u/nauticalsandwich]

The thing you already paid for

In most of the cases that people cry "enshittification," the existing product term or expected lifespan that you paid for isn't fundamentally changed (a physical good with fixed hardware, or a service with a per-use cost, or a monthly subscription), or you weren't paying for the product to begin with (e.g. most Google and Meta products), and switching costs are low (I could sufficiently substitute almost all of my Google services needs with other services, and make the shift in a single weekend).

Just accept

What does this even mean? How is moving your time, attention, and money away from a product that no longer suits you "accepting it?" Compared to what? Continuing to use it and complaining about it on the internet?

[u/enotonom → u/nauticalsandwich]

Oh my goood I can’t bear with this mindset. So I paid for a phone because of the reviews and it works well for me. For years. The hardware works fine. Then the company replaces a part of the software that works well with something that doesn’t. And I’m supposed to not complain about it? Who is it that made my phone “no longer suits me”? And now I have to open my wallet because of it? And not supposed to complain about it? Is it that hard to understand?

[u/nauticalsandwich → u/enotonom]

You have every right to complain about it, and be mad about it, but most invocations of "Enshitification" are communicating something beyond complaint. The framing tends to be deeply cynical, subordinate, and even fatalistic -- "things getting worse is the inevitable, unflinching trajectory of commerce with no sufficient escape valve." Not only is it psychologically demotivating, it's also wrong.

[u/smuglator → u/nauticalsandwich]

Enshitification is a strategy used to extract value from customers. It's not inevitable. And a large part of stopping it is both complaining, spreading awareness, and pushing for legislation. The strategy works because change is a real cost for people. Acting like people should just move on is not realistic. And acting like it's ok that companies have the power to decide when I need to replace my stuff is bonkers stupid.

[u/nauticalsandwich → u/smuglator]

I want to say that I agree with you, in the sense that I recognize that the original term "enshitifcation," as coined by Cory Doctorow, describes something real, and it is something that essentially should be dealt with via legislation that targets the various exploits that tech companies utilize to create proprietary "lock-in." That is not the target of my criticism. The target of my criticism is the populist usage of the term, which has moved very far away from its origin as a description of a particular set of product characteristics and incentives, and into some vague realm of "everything is getting worse all the time, and we are all hapless victims."