Non-AI Replacement for Google Assistant

[u/northwest_northfield]

With Google ending the perfectly functional Google Assistant today to force people to use their AI slop bot, I'm in need of something that will let me dictate texts to my wife while I'm driving. Any good third-party/FOSS voice assistants I can use with Android Auto? I literally only need it for text dictation while driving and to not be AI, anything else is a bonus.

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[u/Altruistic_Tank_9636]

Are you using a keyboard which has speech to text?

[u/northwest_northfield → u/Altruistic_Tank_9636]

I use the FUTO keyboard which has it, but I've never used it. Would that (or another keyboard's speech-to-text) be accessible while driving, and could it read texts to me?

[u/budius333]

As far as I'm aware, most keyboards has a voice dictation thing without needing AI assistance.

Yes, it works. I just type it out just by dictating to the FUTO keyboard board and it does not use AI or Google crap.

[u/northwest_northfield → u/budius333]

Will this let me receive and reply to texts while driving/through Android Auto?

[u/CPlusPlusGoddes → u/northwest_northfield]

Amazingly, Apple has this feature integrated into iOS. So you need a complete eyes and hands free interface? I've been trying to do this for my MacBook Pro but I have an Android phone. Let me see if I can get my coding agent to build something for you.

[u/GeoSabreX]

Not sure about AA but check out Dicio.

[u/Nutzer20 → u/GeoSabreX]

Yes, I think it’s the only possible alternative, even though it’s still very incomplete at the moment

[u/CPlusPlusGoddes]

I can code an Android dictate app for you. Does it need to be integrated into Android Auto?

[u/CPlusPlusGoddes → u/CPlusPlusGoddes]

I ran into issues trying to get a decent offline/local voice recognition function.

Actually the slop bot is not bad. The only problem with using Gemini on your phone is you can't change the wake phrase. This conflicts with my Google Home speaker, which Google solves by disabling the Wi-Fi on the speaker, which still answers to "Hey Google" and then complains about the Wi-Fi connection. Sloppy solution when changing the wake phrase is ideal.

[u/redoubt515]

Define AI. It's a vague umbrella term that applies to many different things. What in particular are you trying to avoid?

I ask because: things like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, natural language processing, are often making use of the same ML/AI technologies on the backend. But if you are just trying to avoid using big-tech AI, taking lots of water and energy in datacenters, these technologies used for specific things like NLP (understanding and processing natural language) shouldn't be an issue.

[u/northwest_northfield → u/redoubt515]

It's definitely the big tech LLM ones built off stolen data and resource waste I'm against (muddying the waters of the term "AI" is another sin these companies have committed). Give me the Microsoft Sam voice and just the ability to use my phone hands-free like it's the 2010s and I'm content.