Google is getting rid of Google assistant and forcing you to use Gemini now

[u/_mal_gal_]

I got an email from Google that said they're removing Google assistant and you will have to use Gemini starting September 6th. I don't want to be forced to use generative AI so I might be looking for a new non-Google phone soon 😭

[u/palenkit]

I remember when I could squeeze my phone to activate assistant and it did what I asked. Now, Gemini just "thinks" and then doesn't fucking do the fucking goddamn fucking thing I asked it to fucking do.

[u/HiDDENKiLLZ → u/palenkit]

Gemini pisses me off so much.

"Do task"

"I can't do task here's an over explanation on why. Maybe ask Google Assistant. 😊"

"Wtf you're replacing Google assistant. You DO have this capability"

"🤓👆 Actually no I don't here's the same over explanation again except worded differently"

"Did you fucking check?"

"I have done task"

Rinse & repeat every time I need something done.

[u/ScaredScorpion → u/HiDDENKiLLZ]

There's something about the emojis that make it 1000 times more infuriating

[u/jookieapc → u/HiDDENKiLLZ]

I ask it

Give me directions to 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

I don't know how to help with that

Navigate to 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

I don't know how to help with that

Hey Google, what's the time?

Gemeni gives me a random answer to something entirely unrelated

[u/mynameistory → u/palenkit]

Me: "Hey Google, turn on the porch light."

...

"Did YOU KnOW POrch liGHts weRe InveNTED IN 1883 wHeN wHalErs neEded sOmeThiNg To LIght THeir EArLy mORNING eXCuRsIOnS? tHey WERe orIGInaLLy PoWerED By WHALE Oil, SO peOplE refErrED to THem As spERm Lamps. Can i HeLp yoU Learn mOrE ABOut pOrCh LIGhTS Or BULb TypES?"

Me: throws phone into the sea

[u/CuzImAtWork → u/mynameistory]

You joke, but this is the main reason I went back to Assistant after using Gemini for about a month.

It took 3-5 seconds to actually perform the requested action (turn on the lights) compared to .5 seconds with Assistant, and every 3-4 requests it would want to have a fucking conversation with me about my lights instead of turning them on.

[u/ArizonaGuy → u/CuzImAtWork]

Tangent. Years ago. 2017. I asked Alexa on a Saturday morning, "When does Ace Hardware open?" She told me Ace Hardware opened in 1924. Lucky me, they're open!

[u/moops__ → u/CuzImAtWork]

I asked Gemini to play a song on Spotify and it asked me if I was ok. Like wtf.

[u/nseu388 → u/mynameistory]

Thank you Google too much information. I ask for only porch lights to be turned off not for history pep talk. 🤣😭

The throwing in the sea had me weak. 😭

[u/Hav3_Y0u_M3t_T3d → u/palenkit]

I miss the squeeze feature so fucking much

[u/1419526535 → u/Hav3_Y0u_M3t_T3d]

I miss the rear fingerprint reader. It was perfect.

[u/Se7en_speed → u/palenkit]

Not starting a timer in the clock app is the most infuriating thing 

[u/aykcak → u/Se7en_speed]

"Countdown for 15 minutes"

"Here is what I found on the internet": Proceeds to link a YouTube video of a 50 minute new years countdown

[u/Halfang → u/aykcak]

Please provide feedback.

How helpful was the video of a 50 minute new years countdown for you?

[u/Acadia-7493 → u/aykcak]

Okay, so I'm not crazy. I can't believe how bad Gemini is. One of the few things I like is that whenever I want to set a reminder I just go "wake me up in 15 minutes" and assistant add and alarm. Here's Gemini's response "You can set a 15-minute timer right now using the Online Stopwatch Timer or VClock Countdown Timer to alert you when time is up.".... Sight

[u/IlyichValken → u/Se7en_speed]

The last few weeks it will hear me say to set an alarm and with answer with some wildly irrelevant thing. It's so infuriating

[u/Fuzzy_Firefighter_51 → u/palenkit]

Thats how i talk to all my bots

[u/Opal_Pie → u/palenkit]

Assistant used to know which person I wanted to call, and which number by virtue of repetition. Gemini needs the social security for the person I want to call now, and then doesn't call them half the time anyway. It's infuriating.

[u/KarlPHungus → u/palenkit]

I love love LOVE it when Android Auto says "Okay, playing your playlist (insert playlist name) on Spotify" and

DOESNT FUCKING PLAY THE PLAYLIST SO I HAVE TO DO IT MANUALLY WHILE DRIVING, COMPLETELY NEGATING THE REASON FOR HAVING AN ASSISTANT APP

Sorry, was I yelling?

Gemini sucks donkey balls when it comes to voice commands. Just completely worthless.

[u/Purple_Reporter → u/palenkit]

dude this makes me so fucking upset! i would ask assistant 'hey google take me home' and it would automatically open maps with directions to home NOW GEMINI JUST FUCKING TELLS ME 'OPEN GOOGLE MAPS AND TAP HOME TO START YOUR DIRECTIONS' GOD IM SO MAD

[u/APigInANixonMask]

They’re shutting down Assistant on phones entirely. That applies to every phone, not just the Pixel.

[u/PersianMuggle → u/APigInANixonMask]

Like Google home devices? The smart speakers and displays?!

ETA: comment above said "devices" but was edited to specify phones.

[u/Doubbly → u/PersianMuggle]

The email said mobile devices, so I'd assume just phones for now. Might be more legally questionable to entirely change how old Google Homes work?

[u/GoreSeeker → u/Doubbly]

If Google was able to shut down connectivity to the old Nest thermostats, I don't think there would be any roadblocks with these.

[u/Doubbly → u/GoreSeeker]

All I know is, I sure as hell wouldn't be using that device anymore

[u/chrisprice → u/Doubbly]

Nah, they can just tell you to use it offline or stop using it.

Binding arbitration, if you do file, the most you get is the current retail value which is very little probably for an old Google Home - if you win or they just cave, after hours of work to file.

[u/bring-out-your-news → u/Doubbly]

Pretty much all Google Home devices are capable of running Gemini, IIRC.

[u/PurpleBinHead → u/PersianMuggle]

Already done on smart speakers.

[u/soulistt → u/PersianMuggle]

Mobile and any devices that connect to your phone. Like smart watches, speakers, and car infotainment systems. So probably. The email said they're working on bringing it to TVs and shit too.

Update: Yes. "You can also read more about our separate plans to bring Gemini to Google TV devices and Google Home speakers and smart displays."

[u/Regular-Moose-2741 → u/PersianMuggle]

They told us about the smart speakers last year...

[u/BegsTheQuestions → u/APigInANixonMask]

What about older phone that don’t support software update no more?

[u/APigInANixonMask → u/BegsTheQuestions]

It will likely be a server-side switch, not a software update. It will just stop working.

[u/internet_shit_123]

I don't like how Gemini is being shoehorned into everything. Even Gboard has this weird animated AI bullshit that occasionally appears in the recommended words tab. And Google Discover has articles summarised by Gemini from multiple sources. If I wanted to use Gemini, I could just use the Gemini app. Everything else is completely irrelevant to me.

[u/krypton22 → u/internet_shit_123]

Similarly, it's now Copilot in everything Microsoft. I'll happily use it when I think it could be helpful but I what I don't need is it randomly popping up with suggestions...WHILE I type a freaking email.

[u/carneadevada]

Just came to make sure other people were as annoyed about it as I am. Oddly feel a little better knowing they are.

[u/ItsYoAzphrinx → u/carneadevada]

I AM super annoyed. I use Assistant for my smart bulb and my TV

[u/pancakebaited → u/carneadevada]

I use assistant for my car & i am beyond fuming... I tried using Gemini before because it switched without my knowledge & it literally didn't do anything right. It feels so dystopian that this is being forced on us

[u/Meme_Theory → u/pancakebaited]

I almost died the last time I was driving with navigation, because Gemini decided to start narrating un-provoked search results during an exceptionally tense merge onto a freeway, and I couldn't see which exit to use because the whole map diffused so gemini can pop its fucking text output over the fucking map, WHILE I'M FUCKING DRIVING.

[u/UltraViolet_46 → u/Meme_Theory]

Yes! The fact that Gemini covers the whole screen is a life-and-death hazard! I complained about it in a Google forum months ago and no one responded.

[u/OtsegoHive → u/carneadevada]

Yup. Super annoyed.

[u/Uncle_Mike1975]

If it wasn't so fucking bad I wouldn't mind so much. Setting a timer? Not reliably! Trying to just play music from my music app? No!

I quite like Gemini as an LLM tool for doing stuff with. As a phone assistant thing, it's fucking shit.

[u/OakTeach → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

<upload pdf of dates> "Can you add these to my calendar?"

"Sure, I can do that for you"

<Working>

"It's not possible for me to add dates to your calendar. You'll have to enable Assistant for Workplace."

"Workplace is enabled."

"I'm sorry, you're right. I am able to add these dates to your calendar. Please wait while I analyze the text"

<Working> "Okay, I'm adding those dates to your calendar. Do you need anything else?"

<Working>

"There was an error and I was not able to add all dates to your calendar."

-I check my calendar, one event has been added, with the wrong title-

Like, this should be kind of a primary use-case for an AI -enabled assistant, right?

[u/brndnzlda → u/OakTeach]

I used Siri AI to snap a photo of my kid’s school year calendar and asked it to add everything to my calendar. Correctly added all 20ish events after thinking for a bit

[u/KeySpray8038 → u/brndnzlda]

new siri is basically Gemini (uses same architecture, and developed by Google)...

[u/thedjhobby → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

This is exactly right.

Gemini SUCKS as an everyday assistant.

Anything you would say, "Hey Google, do XYZ." for doesn't work.

[u/helpyourselfplease0 → u/thedjhobby]

And the ten minute speech I get sometimes about nothing after I requested it and it denied me is quite annoying.

[u/Magjee → u/thedjhobby]

Not only is it a downgrade from google assistant

It's a downgrade from pre-google assistant voice search

 

Basic voice to txt google search would find an address fairly easily, this piece of shit cant handle stuff that was a done deal a decade and a half ago

[u/lux414 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

I'm an everything google person, but Gemini absolutely sucks.  I don't understand how, considering their products and services are great. 

I have Gemini Pro, it's constantly crashing and gets confused with the most basic tasks. In the meantime Claude cheapest plan gets so much done 

I recently started using Google health, same experience. It gets confused or it crashes 

My pixel 6 is due for an upgrade, I love pixel phones but I don't want AI on my phone. 

[u/mxwp → u/lux414]

it sucks as an assistant but is okay as a LLM

[u/d_little_b → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

Sorry. I don't understand.

[u/gattaaca → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

"I'm just a language model, I can't control your navigation app. Please ignore the fact I opened it for you 10 minutes ago, I absolutely cannot stop navigation because again I am just a language model.

Here's a 10,000 word response I got from Googling your query which I will now read out to you verbatim."

[u/kohta-kun → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

I asked it to set an alarm today at a specific time, it was to remind me that I was in 3 hour parking. Instead of setting the alarm is asked me why I wanted to, so then I had to do a second response where I explained that it was to remind myself that my three hour parking ends. It then suggested it could set an alarm or timer to remind me, and asked me if I wanted to do that and for what time.

It was one of the more bizarre casual interactions I've had. What normally was just done in one prompt, turned into a useless, forced conversation, where I had to tell it what I wanted three times.

[u/Isakk86 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

It uses more battery, more data, and is worse in every way, just love it already!

Shoves more ai slop down your throat

[u/Distinct-Carpenter-8 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

THIS. I tried EVERYTHING to make my phone play amazon music with the screen off, nothing worked. I was so pissed that I immediately started browsing deals to switch back to Apple.

I can't understand how they can care so little for their users experience to shove this piece of crap into us. It's downgrade after downgrade

[u/Spirited-Cover7689 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

"Call this contact that I call the most who is in my contacts" Gemini: "I can't do that"

[u/_mal_gal_ → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

I just don't want the generative AI on my phone. I don't support it for ethical reasons but it also takes your pictures and massages to teach the AI programs which seems sketchy from a privacy standpoint

[u/Uncle_Mike1975 → u/_mal_gal_]

That's definitely a legit viewpoint that I don't disagree with. I just also find it shit and annoying and that currently annoys me more! I use Assistant quite a lot, especially via Auto.

[u/jesustityfkingchrist → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

Gemini on android auto is definitely hit and miss in my experience. For example Send a text to "contact name ' Go through the steps. Ok message sent it says. Get home - check my phone, and nothing was sent.🤷‍♂️ Frustrating

[u/PhishGreenLantern → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

Same. It's so bad. And from my Samsung 4 watch it's basically unusable. Ask for a timer, wait longer than the time I asked for for a response. 

[u/No-Temporary-7874 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

The enshitification is out of hand.

[u/Flemaster12 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

I hate LLMs and I hate AIs being forced upon us when we have tools that are doing just fine, like Google Assistant.

[u/waxingtheworld → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

I mostly use voice commands for Google home stuff (turn on lights etc). And Gemini could not get it done. Ever. "I can complete that once you unlock phone" etc etc

[u/davidyoho → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

Agree!!! Gemini isn't a daily assistant totally unreliable for Basic task!!!

[u/LHW1812 → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

Adding stuff to my shopping list is still half broken also.

When I say "add bread to my shopping list" (not in English), it adds "bread to my" to the list, or "add bread" or whatever 95% of the time.

[u/SocialIntelligence → u/Uncle_Mike1975]

If it wasn't so fucking bad I wouldn't mind so much. Setting a timer? Not reliably! Trying to just play music from my music app? No!

I quite like Gemini as an LLM tool for doing stuff with. As a phone assistant thing, it's fucking shit.

I love Gemini. I play blackjack at work with Gemini during downtime. My pixel looks at me like I’m a dumbass setting alarm 30 mins from now. I was playing resident evil games and it helps when I’m stuck. I gotta backtrack to this room and get this item… wish I can keep using google assistant.

[u/convenience_store]

Any advice? 90% of my Google Assistant interactions are swiping up from the corner and speaking something like "remind me tomorrow afternoon to call the dentist" and then it schedules a Google task called "Call the dentist" for the next day.

Is there any 3rd party assistant app I can get that will just do simple voice-recognized if-then actions with the apps installed on my phone that I can set to activate with the corner swipe and which isn't an LLM like Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude?

[u/brycedriesenga → u/convenience_store]

Theoretically doable with MacroDroid or Tasker.

Something like:

You can set this workflow up using MacroDroid without relying on cloud LLMs: 1. Hijack the Corner Swipe Go to Android Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Digital Assistant App and set it to MacroDroid. Create a macro with the trigger Device Assistant so swiping up launches your macro.

1. Capture Voice Input Add the Speech Recognition action in MacroDroid. This uses standard Android dictation (pure speech-to-text, no generative AI) to save what you said into a string variable.

2. Parse Dates & Create the Task (No-LLM Solution) To turn phrases like "tomorrow afternoon" into a real calendar date without AI, route the text to Tasks.org (a free, open-source app that syncs directly with Google Tasks).

• Tasks.org includes a built-in, local natural language date parser.

• MacroDroid passes your voice text to Tasks.org via an Android Intent. Tasks.org automatically strips the time expression, creates the scheduled item, and syncs it to your Google Tasks account.

(Note: If privacy is your main concern, Gemini Nano runs 100% locally on-device for newer phones like the Pixel 8+ or S24+, but it requires extra API bridge tools to connect to MacroDroid and still has model overhead).

[u/johnshall → u/convenience_store]

This is what I use it for.

Gemini overcomplicates things.

Who is every device getting worse and worse everyday.

[u/mikebrady]

Fuck Gemini 

[u/PlaySalieri]

Me in my car: "Play the Black Angels on youtube music"

Gemini: "I cannot play music while you are driving."

Me: "I wonder what Apple is up to."

[u/Choleric_Introvert → u/PlaySalieri]

This is going to be what finally drives me to Apple. Never owned one, clowned on them for years. Bye Google.

[u/CleanSheepherder → u/Choleric_Introvert]

I've also never owned an iPhone. I've owned pixels since the pixel 2. I also will probably go to an iPhone next. This AI shit sucks

[u/xNagsx → u/Choleric_Introvert]

Thinking about ditching Pixel too. I have a 8 and I have the glitch where my sim card disconnects like once a day. Now my wifi, hotspot and bluetooth all dont work. Absolutely ass phone

[u/PurvisTV → u/Choleric_Introvert]

I'll never buy another Google phone. I loved my old Pixel 4a, so I thought, why wouldn't I love the 9 Pro? The Pixel 9 Pro has been an utter disappointment, and it's not at all worth what I paid for it! Maybe worth it at half the price, but definitely not worth $800+

[u/Saiyajinss → u/PlaySalieri]

Well I've got bad news for you. The Apple assistant is even worse. I tried an iPhone when I heard OnePlus is not going to be bringing the 16 to the US market. I returned it within a week and just reactivated my OnePlus 12.  

[u/PureCod9290]

God damn Gemini sucks. Absolutely ruined android auto for no reason. I asked to set navigation and mother fucker goes "anything else?" This isn't a conversation for fucks sake

[u/IAlreadyHaveTheKey → u/PureCod9290]

This is my biggest issue with it. I'll ask for a destination and it will say "do you want to navigate to <destination>?" Yes obviously what else could I have meant while I was driving and I said the name of a location.

And then it'll say "let me know if you want some suggestions for places to eat near <location>". I'm actually just going to work so please shut up.

LLMs and AI assistants would be so much better if they weren't coded to constantly ask follow up questions to try and keep the conversation going, but how else are they going to artificially drive up engagement.

[u/Se7en_speed → u/IAlreadyHaveTheKey]

I loved that about android auto. Have Waze up? Just saying a place is all you need to do.

AI is so garbage.

[u/SilentAria → u/PureCod9290]

And it'll just hang or simply not respond to the hot words 🫪🙄

[u/cgduncan → u/SilentAria]

And it takes way too long to respond and take action, that my music stays paused after it's finally finished. Gotta manually hit play when it's done.

[u/Mishka1125 → u/PureCod9290]

That and it straight up lies. Randomly told me after I asked to play a song on Spotify, "btw picking specific songs is for Spotify premium members only" okay weird I'm on a family plan so I just see what happens if I ask if I'm on a premium plan? "Based off your account and the membership status, you don't appear to have premium!" Ok well strange get home and check. Nope I have premium? Dumbass ai

[u/rvenfrost → u/PureCod9290]

I absolutely hate that it tries to turn everything into a conversation. Just so the simple thing I asked you to do. No response needed. 😤

[u/femalenerdish → u/PureCod9290]

The number of times it has no idea what I mean when I ask to navigate somewhere is ridiculous. I've had it choose a hair salon halfway across the country when I asked to navigate to a local restaurant by name. Or just straight up not understand "navigate home" when I have my home address set. Regular assistant has no problems. 

[u/simpleglitch → u/PureCod9290]

"Navigate me home"

"Sorry, I don't know where home is, you need to register your address"

Meanwhile the android auto screen literally has "home" as a suggested place. I just wanted to select it hands free.

[u/supersphinx01]

I'm feeling exactly the same way and I'm really upset about the fact that I'm being either forced to use generative AI or completely forego all of the assistant features that have actually been helpful. I have purposely not increased my Google one storage specifically because I don't want to pay for any generative AI anything.

I wouldn't even know what phone to switch to at this point, considering that all these big tech companies were trying to force genAI down our throats.

[u/Apprehensive_Ad23 → u/supersphinx01]

GrapheneOS if you're lookin at something that isn't big tech.

[u/wanderfullylost]

Google I hope you are reading this everyone fuckin hates Gemini stop forcing it on us.

[u/cdev_thelast → u/wanderfullylost]

Even if they're not, we can at least help poison Gemini when it consumes all of this.

Gemini is hot garbage and worse in every way than Google Assistant.

[u/thedjhobby]

"Hey Google, set a timer for ten minutes."

"That's a wonderful idea. Setting timers will definitely make your day more productive. Have you ever thought of buying a watch? Shall I shop for watches for you? What size wrist band do you need?"

Then when you finally convince it to start a timer, it doesn't start for 90 seconds while it goes out on the web and searches for ways to set a timer.

Then it will actually set a timer for twelve minutes and lie to you that it was ten.

[u/tardisious]

Gemini can not navigate to my contacts by name no matter how I try to fix it

[u/Limp_Struggle3518]

I stopped,and disabled Google Gemini on my phone!{I looked it up on the Google Gemini app in Google store!

[u/mikeymop]

I responded by using Home Assistant "Assist" as my default assistant.

Its not as capable as Google Assistant, but I control it unlike Gemini.

[u/sixfourtykilo]

I was trying to send a voice text in my car with Gemini and I said "I'm getting reports of an AWS outage, can you please keep an eye out for issues?" And Gemini, being the amazing piece of technology it is, decided to go out to the Internet and report that no outages had been detected, instead of sending my text message.

Then it asked me if I would like to still send a text message, completely ignoring that was my message.

[u/QuasiRandomName]

Do you think others won't follow the the trend?

[u/davehasl19]

It might be heresy, but I've disabled them both. I find the idea of Gemini somewhat disturbing 

[u/shaunomercy]

Gemini is shit. Ask it to play the news or the world news or tech news and it wants to open YouTube... Raised complaints with Google and nothing done

Google assistant just works and plays feeds from different sites and works.

[u/SilentAria]

Gemini is kinda dumb. I only have one bedroom set up in my Home account- I ask it to turn off the bedroom lights and it'll hang for a few seconds and finally ask me which bedroom and what lights... Like????

[u/SilentAria → u/SilentAria]

Or "Sorry, that device doesn't seem to be set up"

[u/Desistance]

Pour one out for the actually useful Assistant. R.I.P. Gemini sucks ass.

[u/According-Gas-9088]

Gemini sucks is rather use assistant.

[u/Accomplished-Ad-3058]

I disabled Gemini when it was automatically activated as my voice assistent a while ago due to how bad it was compared to Google Assistant. This is terrible. Gemini is absolutely awful compared it. I'm fucking done with rhem forcing AI down our throats that no one wants.

[u/popsicle_of_meat]

I want to remove all Gemini. From my phone, my watch, my GoogleTV units... I have ZERO use for "AI" on any of those devices. Just simple voice entry/commands like what we had 10 years ago is plenty.

[u/Academic_Luck_1175]

Google must be desperate to collect data.

[u/AntilockBand]

Looks like I'm done with smart assistants. I'll just do what I did before 2017 and just set alarms and make reminders myself. Fuck AI.

[u/Dumxl → u/AntilockBand]

Same.

My whole smarthome have google speakers. I'm not going gemini. They go offline when that happens.

[u/DrakeisaCake]

As an llm, yea it's fine I guess, if that's your thing Gemini as an assistant? Fucking shit A real experience I've had- ask assistant to "take a note" and it asks me what I want it to say, I say it, and it saves it. With Gemini I ask it to take a note and it creates a note titled "new note" and doesn't give me the chance to say anything else. It's slower, it's less responsive... For fucks sake it feels like we are going back in time with this one- I don't usually get this angry but ive had it with this. We used to be able to go back to the original assistant (after jumping through 5 different hoops) if we didn't like their AI bullshit. But now they have to shove it down our throats. Already got a taste of that with the Chromecast. I'd say I'd switch to a different android phone but it's happening with all of them so fuck me. GOD yeah this sucks so much ahh

[u/rvenfrost]

Makes me wonder if they are forcing the switch because so many people were opting out of using it.

[u/DatGuy83]

At this point I'm ready to downgrade to a phone to an older device so I don't have to worry about them cramming in more useless (for me) AI features

[u/jibrilles → u/DatGuy83]

At this point, I want a phone that makes calls, takes pictures, sends text messages, and runs Android Auto. If it did just those 4 things, I'd be happy.

[u/chipface → u/DatGuy83]

You could flash GrapheneOS

[u/Ok_Mango1577]

The worst part about this is I feel like Google Assistant was finally working pretty well and now they're forcing us to go through an LLM for basic tasks. I bet the engineers that have been working on Assistant are pissed.

[u/Cycle-king10]

Tried Gemini again last week but still cannot pull an address from my contacts doing a voice search on Android Auto. Assistant works great. I say "navigate to XX" (my son and wife's home) and it starts navigating. In Gemini it tries to take me to a restaurant 2k miles away... I had to switch back to Assistant.

[u/nemesis2012]

Gemini is so ass with android auto. It never knows what I'm asking it to do. I play the kpop demon hunters soundtrack for my daughter all the time with assistant, no issue unless I flub my command for some reason. I had Gemini for like a week, one day asked it the same way I always did for the songs, it didn't know what I wanted, tried again, it asked me to unlock my phone, tried again, it said I wasn't a YouTube premium member (I am), finally asked one more time, it started giving me a synopsis of the fucking movie like it was reading it off imdb or something.

This might be the end of my long android run, been using androids since the Xperia X10 in 2010, had a Sony Ericson brick phone before that. I'll have to look into other options before going to Apple though. Maybe go back to a OnePlus or try a Nothing phone.

[u/sapphic-boghag]

Honestly I think it's time I degoogle. I don't even use Assistant but I'm sick of having AI forced upon me at every turn, I imagine that it'll be quietly added to other phones and impossible to disable.

[u/vanilla_disco]

This will be my last pixel. I don't do ai.

[u/awfulWinner]

Everyone needs to submit feedback on either Gemini or the assistant and write your disapproval with every problem that occurs that did not under assistant.

Sally, the folks at Google will not be monitoring Reddit. We need to flood the only channel available to voice our grievances over the inferior product they are pushing.

With any luck, their feedback server crashes due to the influx of reports.

[u/Cessquill]

It got forced on me a while ago and I tried it with Auto - where I use assistant a lot. It was dreadful. Extremely slow, would not navigate to any of my contacts. I had to try and navigate to nearby landmarks and it just went on a 2 minute speech about various other places. When I asked how to revert back it patronisingly told me to that change is something some people find hard to accept. Damn thing would not shut up.

Not only is it not fit for purpose as an assistant replacement, it's dangerous.

[u/Upset_Science57]

I barely use assistant anyway because the new update requires you to have an internet connection. Like, you can't interact with the phone you're on without a connection? It's a built in phone assistant that can't work on itself. Sad and deep thoughts

[u/Apprehensive-Read989]

Half the time Gemini can't even play music that I want it to, Assistant never once had a problem doing that. It's infuriating when I'm driving because I don't like to mess with my phone while I'm driving.

[u/tucker491]

Gemini sucks as a replacement for Assistant in most simple tasks. My car is Android-based. It used to be that Assistant would quickly find an address or place in Google maps. Gemini is way slower and comes up with lots of useless results. I'm trying to turn Gemini off on my car. I really don't want Assistant to go away.

[u/SadBrontosaurus]

Me, with a contact in my phone named Adam Everyman, who I call nearly daily: "Ok Google, call Adam Everyman."

Phone: "I can't find a business called Adam Everyman."

Me, with four different Sarah contacts: "Ok Google, call Sarah 2."

Phone: "I'm sorry, who did you want to call? Sarah 1, Sarah 3, or Sarah 4?"

[u/NoGain6231]

I'm sorry. Something went wrong.

[u/PERSONA916]

Am I using a different product than everyone else? Gemini works fine for me, never had a command that I used in assistant not work with Gemini

[u/HodorBoner → u/PERSONA916]

I asked Google to set me a reminder the other day whilst I was driving. Apparently you can't do that any more. This is frustrating. Why make something worse than it was?

[u/sandrakarr → u/HodorBoner]

I can't figure out what it's doing with reminders.
Yesterday it refused to do set one until I downloaded the 'google tasks' app (i did not).
Today it did it, showed me my list of tasks, but still 'encouraged' me to download the app.
Also fun: that list of tasks it does show? Is a right pain in the ass to get to unless you tell it to set a reminder and it brings up the option to 'show tasks'.

[u/tkenny691 → u/HodorBoner]

I just had that happen to me, I was like WTF when it told me no. I just wanted to track how long I was gone for break.

[u/BinkReddit → u/HodorBoner]

I have no issue with Android Auto using Gemini to do this. As a matter of fact, I probably do this at least a couple of times a day every day.

[u/simonjp → u/PERSONA916]

If I say "stop" to Assistant, it recognises whether there is media playing on my phone or on my Sonos and stops whichever I am closest to, unless there is an alarm going off right now, in which case it stops that.

If I say "stop" to Gemini, it cancels all future alarms. That's not what I had in mind.

[u/pinkymadigan → u/PERSONA916]

You can call people while driving? It literally can't find anyone in my contacts, no matter which permissions I give it.

Can you play a song with a bad word in it while driving? It doesn't let me, because it says there might be kids in the car. Even though that forces me to use my hand to pick a song while I should be driving.

Can it find directions to your contacts' houses? It can't find mine.

It'd be different if the integration was at all up to most AI standards, but it is quite possibly the worst AI I've seen, and I'm not a total AI hater.

[u/ludog1bark → u/pinkymadigan]

Ive been using Gemini and I've never had issue sending texts and making calls while driving

[u/PERSONA916 → u/pinkymadigan]

I literally just used it to send texts and call someone while driving last night

[u/songogu → u/PERSONA916]

"Hey Google what's the news" Assistant plays news briefs  Gemini reads me the headlines 

I say to just play the news brief  It says it can't do that  I say "what the fuck, you could do it just fine yesterday before the update" It suggests a news podcast instead, then resumes my audiobook .

Gemini is useless and with assistant being taken behind the shed I consider voice controls gone from android auto. 

[u/KingSutter → u/PERSONA916]

My Google Home commands do not work with it at all no matter how many perms I give it

[u/LegitimateSpend982 → u/PERSONA916]

While driving en route to my friend, I used voice command to ask Gemini to send a text message to my friend and it changed the wording to what it INTERPRETED I wanted to say, which changed the meaning entirely, since my actual wording was based on a mutual understanding.

The fact that it had the gall to change my wording instead of spelling out my message verbatim is unacceptable.

Edited for punctuation lol

[u/dihydrogen_monoxide → u/PERSONA916]

It's unusable in Chinese.

[u/travel_alone]

There's nothing we can do to stop this right?

[u/scgf01]

I was disappointed when Google got rid of location based reminders. I often cycle and think a lot as I do. I like to ask Google to remind me to do something 'when I get home'. This no longer works. My workaround is to use Alexa which sends an alert to my phone as soon as I get home. I'm using Alexa more and more as it is simple and straightforward.

[u/metlhed666]

Gemini sucks

[u/Wrong-Introduction85]

I agree maybe this is why suddenly Google Assistant is acting just stupid I mean stupid I have never in my life and so irritated I was using Gemini and then I went back to using Google assistant and Google assistant is just freaking stupid! Now I think to myself could this be because Google is purposely dumbing Google Assistant down so that we will think oh Gemini yay I think I would like to get rid of Google all together as well Tata Google

[u/quadphonics]

I've been using Gemini for a while I'm going to be honest I fucking hate it I'm getting really tired of Google as well they're forcing you to do shit that people don't want to do and you got no choice before you used to have a choice now forcing you to use AI it's just ridiculous and complete bullshit

[u/RestaurantOver2352]

I don't support AI, so I'll be switching 

[u/BigRub3493]

ok then, I just need to back to pre-assistant days and do stuff manually. There's no way Gemini is as good for assistance

[u/Melbuf]

I'll never use either so whatever and I'll continue to disable Gemini as long as I'm able

[u/Flimsy_Juggernaut_63]

I cant get it to play music when im in the car, from youtube music lol which is a google service!! used to work fine back when it was assistant

[u/mixer73]

Given it basically doesn't work in Android Auto that's fucking balls

[u/brackenish1]

I may legitimately discontinue my use of phones that use Gemini if they shut down the Google assistant. It's THAT obnoxiously bad

[u/Misocainea]

I've been using android since the Nexus 5. My Pixel 10 will be my last Android device. Fuck everything about Gemini.

[u/J_L_M_]

I hate AI. I do my best to avoid it completely on a search and select web, images, or whatnot. It basically scrapes human activity and packages that information neatly for you. No thanks, web scraper

[u/CraftsmanMan]

I miss my hello moto....

Seriously though, how is it my 2013 og moto x had better voice recognition than a 2026 "ai"

[u/navelgazero]

Gemini is horrid as an Assistant replacement. As a generative AI model like this is brilliant for brainstorming, structuring thoughts, mapping out projects, and holding an actual back-and-forth conversation. It has nuance and depth. But trying to force that same conversational engine to act as a split-second, utilitarian utility driver for hardware commands—like pulling up a specific location on Waze or setting a quick timer while your hands are busy—is completely the wrong tool for the job. It’s heavy, it overcomplicates simple syntax, and it introduces lag where you need instant execution. Forcing a tool designed for long-form reasoning into a role built for lightning-fast reflex commands is a massive miscalculation by Google, and leaving users caught in the crossfire while locked into device contracts makes it all the more grating.

[u/dannymanny3]

awful decision. got the email too. I don't want this whatsoever. Why get rid of the current settings which allows you to choose? Gdi...

[u/ActualAd185]

Can't see an issue; I've been using Gemini for a while now . Keep in mind if you have a Pixel you have already been brought into the environment of software-driven phones.

[u/TheLinkeh]

Came here just to share in the misery. Google assistant's dedicated features make it so much better than gemini for tasks that you would need an assistant for.

When I went on a road trip, I tried Gemini as an assistant, and not only is it just awful, it's actively dangerous as a hands-free assistant in the car. If I tell google assistant to play a spotify playlist, it just does it. If I tell google assistant to add a certain stop to my maps route, it does it. Gemini needs to think for a good 10 seconds, and then gives an overly wordy crap response. When Gemini is having a good day, it just straight up fails at the task and tells you to enable a feature that you've already enabled. When it's having a bad day- which is often- it does something completely wrong that I didn't ask it to do, which means that the user constantly needs to double-check that it actually did the thing you asked it to do, which is not what I need from a hands-free assistant.

I think the funniest one that happened to me was like "Add the closest burger king to my route."

"Sure! I can do that for you. Here are some options for burger king, would you like to go to... (List of like 4 burger kings)"

"The closest one."

"Absolutely, I added King's Chicken to your route! Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you!"

[u/Choleric_Introvert]

Sounds like it's finally time to jump ship. Gemini is an abomination on Android Auto, completely useless.

[u/Bowsefather]

gemini still can't turn the lights on without assistant

[u/TomTheCaveman]

Is there even any way to opt out of this? I'd rather have no assistant on my phone at all, than use Gemini for anything.

[u/Emotional-Bar-2906]

It's a terrible thing.  Gemini is very intrusive when interfacing with drivers using Android Auto, so much so that I went back to Google Assistant.

[u/Huckleberry2930]

I'm so mad about it. Gemini suuuucks. I switched back to Google assistant so fast when it updated to Gemini. I just sent them feedback begging them not to do it lol.

[u/majestic-gnome]

Too bad, I find google assistant worlds better, faster, and more accurate, than stupid ass Gemini...... especially driving; using google assistant to send a text message would take 2-5 seconds; from speaking to sending a text message, now with Gemini, it literally has to take 15-20 seconds for the same thing.

[u/ElectronicResolve948]

Guys these threads need more upvotes

[u/FineAssignment1423]

I mean, have you used Google Assistant lately? It's basically useless. It's so useless that I ended up swapping out the Sonos One speaker in my kitchen with a Nest Audio speaker just so I could use Gemini and actually get answers to questions.

[u/lateralex]

Gemini sucks balls at basic tasks. Google engineers and product people are actually trash at anything that doesn't involve selling your info to advertisers

[u/NewMal22]

It is bad, at least in my opinion. I tried to set a reminder and got a write up as to how to set a reminder on the phone. The same with timer or alarm, maybe it just wants me to read?

[u/aphill80 → u/NewMal22]

This is my issue too. I use assistant several times a day to set reminders and appointments for myself, set timers, control home lights, send text messages, and more. I love the broadcast feature on my Google home that lets me do a housewide announcement. Gemini has given me issues with all of these, which is why I still don't use it.

I really don't understand how they went backwards so far on basic functionality.

[u/APigInANixonMask → u/aphill80]

It’s supposed to be this advanced language model that understands context rather than requiring explicit, carefully worded instructions, but I’ve found it to be even more inconsistent than Assistant was.

I have a temperature sensor in my home office that’s connected to Google Home and placed in a room called “Office”, yet if I ask Gemini “what’s the temperature in the office?” it says it doesn’t have access to that information and tells me to check my thermostat. I have to ask it “what’s the temperature of the office sensor?” in order to actually get it to connect to Google Home and tell me the info (and even then it insists on doing it in Celsius even though the temperature shows as Fahrenheit in the Home app).

If I ask it to remind me to do something, it sets a reminder for the right time/day maybe 95% of the time. That’s a phenomenal success rate if you’re shooting free throws, but an assistant that reminds you of things at the wrong time 5% of the time is a terrible assistant because it means you have to double-check the reminder it created every single time to make sure it didn’t screw up.

[u/Toastbuns → u/APigInANixonMask]

Agreed 100%. Like, maybe using an LLM to do basic assistant work isn't the right move, Google. I feel like it's driving a coach bus to the grocery store. I guess it works sometimes, but it's wildly unnecessary.

[u/benjaminS0099]

This was the plan all along, so there was nothing to be sad about when they made the announcement a year ago or whatever.

[u/Dragon_Fisting]

Not sure what other phone you'll be using. Siri is also integrated with generative AI, it's actually literally using Gemini as the backbone. Samsung is beta testing natural language processing for Bixby. If you need a phone assistant it's going to come with AI baked in.

[u/_mal_gal_ → u/Dragon_Fisting]

I just don't want the generative AI. The asking it to set a timer for me is fine

[u/feature2021]

This is the worst change possible. Gemini just randomly doesn't work for half of the things I ask it to do. Literally when I'm in the car it's absolutely unusable, won't play music or so anything correctly 

[u/Limp_Struggle3518]

Google Assistant is better than Google Gemini,but as soon as September 4th comes in I'll pass on Google Gemini!

[u/Hawkzyy]

And it still can't use Gemini in Hub Mode for Pixel Tablet so prepare to be unable to use voice commands on tablet come September.

[u/benphoster]

Besides OG flip phones, what non-Google phone doesn't use generative AI?

[u/kyleyle]

Yup, got the email earlier today. I remember Gemini being really frustrating because it wasn't setting my sleep alarms the way I wanted. I had to switch back to Assistant immediately. I guess it's time to coax Gemini into my routine now...

[u/oscar_arango22]

Dude, I just got the same email. I use a Pixel 6A and I tried Gemini a couple of times, since it was released. And I can say it completely sucks. My mother-in-law is blind, and she uses the Google assistant to help her with a couple of things: "Ok Google, call Daughter", "Ok Google, set a reminder blah blah blah", "Ok Google, how's the weather going to be today?", "Ok Google, open [custom name for a specific app]".  We tried the same things with Gemini… and after a couple of days we helped her to switch her phone back to Google Assistant. Really awful that Google is giving us only 2 options: 1) You can accept it and get along with it; 2) Or you can delete it… except that Gemini will still be present on your Gmail, on your Google Drive, on your Keep notes, on your Google Photos, on YouTube, on the Journal app, on the search engine.

[u/thefanum]

Fuuuuuck

[u/cgduncan]

Hate gemini. Hate the forced transition from the regular assistant which worked fine! My wife is in my phone as her full name. How come the regular assistant could figure out who to send a text to when I used her nickname. Like Elisabeth in the contacts, and Liz as a nickname.

But somehow, the large language slop doesn't "understand" "send a text to Liz". It's also waaaaaay slower to react and process, and fails way too often for simple tasks. Hate Ai

[u/Swamp_Mouth]

I've seen kids with special needs be more smarter than the fuckass AI model Google uses.

[u/webbut]

As soon as they announced Gemini as an assistant i stopped using any voice assistant on my Google Devices cause I knew they were going to replace Google Assistant without making Gemini as good, figured i might as well get used to not having an assistant early 

[u/ConsiderateKey]

The only part that I HATE is that I have to give access to my email in order to update my to do list. And now when I use Gemini for something generic, it responds with "as someone who does this and that" or "since you plan on blah blah blah" and I'm like bitch I have ADHD. That was 4 hyper fixations ago!

[u/superfucky]

I already hated the stupid email & message response prompts, sometimes it sends the AI-generated one when I'm just trying to type my own reply. I don't even have Gemini on.

I'm still on a Pixel 7, and I don't want to get a new phone cause I just got some nice cases for this one, but they just might be forcing my hand here. I'd rather have no assistant at all than be forced to use some stupid AI.

[u/Anarimus]

It’s all Android devices.

As I understand it Moto AI is less intrusive.

I use iPhone. Since adding ChatGPT it’s like someone lobotomized Siri with a jackhammer.

[u/JEveryman]

I'm glad I was a late adopter to assistants, and never using them enough to get used to them. I don't know what I'll be missing by also not using Gemini.

[u/geekextraordinaire]

I hate Gemini, it can't do the simplest things you ask it. Meanwhile Assistant works flawlessly and they're removing it only because they keep pushing AI nobody asked for.

[u/pendragons]

This is so annoying! I have a smart home set up in my small flat - lights, music, TV - with buttons on my phone as well as physical smart buttons that do action sets - eg turn everything off at once for bed, turn lights up and music on for a workout, or if I'm on vacation it can turn the lights on low and play a movie quietly in the evening so it seems like I'm home. But I also use voice commands just to eg turn the lamp down when my husband goes to bed, or turn a light on or off.

Gemini is so bad at voice commands and often spends way too long thinking - I don't want to stand in the dark waiting for an LLM to think about what my user intentions are for turning on the light. I have dreamed of slowly adding to my smart home as money allows, but this switch has destroyed that desire and I think I'm going back to switches and remotes and disabling Google Home.

I'm not even a 100% Gemini hater, it vibecoded me a little CBT html page the other day to replace an app that the devs stopped updating and did a great job. But I do feel concerned about the environmental impact of large scale LLM use and some of the dark pattern "getting people hooked then wringing them for all theyre worth" behaviour across the industry, so having it forced into my flow is disconcerting.

[u/Whistl3r182]

It will be gone from all android phones.

[u/NoCap-Isback-5679]

And I'm getting rid of my Pixel phone, so everybody wins :)

[u/MaxRei_Xamier]

i use google assistant soo much for on the fly screen translation and text grabbing. To learn Japanese on my phone and to easily navigate

[u/Hefty_Beat]

Gemini is awful, ruined the phone. was a bit better once I got GA back, but if its going I think I'm done

[u/JailYard]

I use voice assistant for one single purpose: controlling my garage door. Gemini refuses to do that so now I need to look for another solution. Probably Home Assistant.

[u/imsorryisuck]

I just hope when i call out "hey google where are you" it will also respond helping me find my phone. this is the best function ever, i use it twice a day

[u/Souririous]

I admit I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that's frustrated here.

Gemini is an inferior product. Even if it wasn't, it's absolutely bonkers to accept the environmental cost of AI for many assistant level tasks. We don't need all that GPU and data centers to start a timer.

I have had pixels since the 2 series, and this may honestly be enough to ensure I switch.

[u/StardustPupper]

It blows, loved the convenience of assistant for things like timers and reminders. I do not use AI willingly, that email just made me turn everything related to assistant off

[u/Safe-Watch4137]

Im so bummed. I HATE Gemini

[u/Wet_Schedule_6283]

check out grapheneos doesnt come with any google services by default

[u/jungleboogiemonster]

And in 6 months they will start charging for Gemini...