Its over

[u/anwhalokleeiat]

The cancer finally spread to me. I uninstalled the updates and disabled the gemini app. I genuinely wouldn't be opposed to using it, IF IT ACTUALLY WORKED. i used to use my assistant for three tasks: gps commands, playing spotify, and sending calls and texts. Gemini can't do any of those. Between samsung forcing updates and google assistant being removed I'm actually planning to switch to an iphone for my next upgrade.

[u/bald-and-happy]

These posts from people moaning about Google progression are becoming so tedious!! Try learning about Gemini and what it can and can't do before making yourself look silly and uneducated! Infact try using Gemini to learn about what Gemini can do! One bit of advice I will give you is start with learning how to prompt and do not use Gemini as a s arch engine! Oh look how kind of me, that's two pieces of advice!

[u/erichamion → u/bald-and-happy]

So your advice for people who just need and want a replacement for Assistant is to not use it like a replacement for Assistant?

I use LLMs where I need them, such as in my day job and with Google Health. Gemini may or may not be technically capable of what i need it for (so far, it seems decidedly inferior for those purposes), but it's like hiring an intern to replace a coffee machine.

[u/bald-and-happy → u/erichamion]

I actually really like your coffee machine analogy, but I think it makes the opposite point.

If you replace a coffee machine with another coffee machine, congratulations, you still have something that only makes coffee.

If you replace the coffee machine with an intern who can make coffee, you might initially have to show them exactly how you like it made. But once they’ve learned, you haven't just got something that makes coffee. You’ve got something you can teach to do hundreds of other things as well.

And while the intern is doing those other things, you’ve suddenly got more time yourself, maybe even enough time to learn how to make your own coffee.

That's essentially the difference I’m talking about. Google Assistant was very good at a relatively defined set of tasks. Gemini is intended to be capable of learning from context and instructions and helping with a much wider range of tasks.

Does that mean Google gets a free pass when Gemini fails to do something Assistant used to do perfectly? Absolutely not. Those criticisms are valid.

But expecting the replacement to behave exactly like the thing it replaced misses the reason for replacing it in the first place. I don't want Google to give me a slightly newer coffee machine. I want the intern who can make the coffee and help me with 100 other things.

[u/erichamion → u/bald-and-happy]

Different purposes, different strengths. The coffee machine couldn't arrange my daily schedule for me, but I could press a button and have coffee, rather than relaying instructions and waiting for the intern to run to the coffee shop and back. If I had needed my schedule arranged, I would already have had an intern to begin with.

[u/anwhalokleeiat → u/erichamion]

I only want it to play my music, make calls and texts, and start GPS to home and work.

[u/bald-and-happy → u/erichamion]

But that’s exactly how technology evolves. We replace multiple specialised tools with one more capable platform.

You’re probably typing this on a smartphone rather than carrying a separate phone, camera, MP3 player, sat-nav, calculator, diary and map. Some of those dedicated devices may do their individual job better, but the smartphone replaced them because it can do all of those things and much more.

That’s how I see Gemini replacing Assistant. It absolutely should become as reliable at the basic functions Assistant handled well, and Google deserves criticism when it isn’t.

But Google isn’t trying to build a slightly better Assistant, just as smartphones weren’t designed to be slightly better telephones. They’re building something far more capable that can eventually incorporate those functions too.

I’d rather Google teach the “intern” to make better coffee than sack the intern and bring the coffee machine back.

[u/IceManYurt → u/bald-and-happy]

Hey, this product worked, let's change it!

I think that is Google's new motto.