We’re upgrading Google Assistant users on mobile to Gemini, offering a new kind of help only possible with the power of AI.
I find Gemini has better communication and comprehension ability compared with assistant, but can do even less when it comes to controlling the phone. No reminders, no calendar events, no messages, no integration with anything. Just talking.
I would have preferred assistant talk and understand better, instead of a completly gimped alternative that does that and nothing more.
Integrations with the phone’s functionality is key. I don’t care how clever the brain is, it needs to talk to the rest of the body.
If this is pushed through a silent update then I’ll use adb to remove it. I don’t need a useless ai assistant hogging precious memory.
I feel bad for for the folks who have their phone gimped overnight and they won’t have a clue why no clue why. So many people with older phones are going to need to upgrade their phone because of this forced update. Talk about e-waste.
Is there a viable replacement to google assistant that’s self hosted or local?
Home assistant
Also except my Pixel running Graphene OS.
I got the change and immediately put it back to Google assistant. I don’t want AI. I want to tell my phone when to set my alarm clock.
How so I do this? Pixel 9
Settings> type “assistant settings” in search> digital assistants from google> click on Google assistant
🤣 Gemini is the worst of all the ais. It can’t even do the most basic shit like set reminders.
Google has fallen so hard. They are just pure ad garbage now.
Timers are literally the only thing I use it for.
Just like Google Assistant
Google Assistant: Let’s build a product around functionality.
Gemini: Let’s functionality around a product.
Any guess which method works better?
Works better to satisfy shareholders?
Once again, thank goodness for GrapheneOS.
Never have I appreciated not having features so much.
Gemini eats glue. We need a much more reliable model to replace Assistant.
Didn’t read the article and I haven’t really used Android in a almost a decade, but aren’t most android devices on seriously old versions and sold with 2GB RAM or less. Or are shit Android devices less common nowadays?
Last time I seriously considered an Android device was 8ish years ago and devices running Android 2 were still being sold new.
My old, crappy phone that retailed for $250 (got for much cheaper) had 4GB RAM (released 2019 or 2020), and my current one has 8GB RAM. The one before that had 2GB IIRC, and was released around 2017, and it was crappy for the time.
Modern barrel bottom Android phones in the past few years require an ARM64 system, and come with minimum 4GB / 64GB RAM and Storage. Good phones will have 8, 12, even 16 GB RAM and up to 1TB Storage.
No fucking thanks! Gemini is garbage.
Is there a tradein program to get my old phone back?
I use Google Assistant a lot. I tried the Gemini Assistant on my phone and it was an exercise in frustration.
Me: (after pausing the tv) “Resume TV”
Google: (resumes playback on TV)
Gemini: “TV not recognised. Please say the device name” or even worse… “A resume is essential when you’re looking for a job in television. Your resume should blah blah…”
Me: (with phone locked) “set a timer for xxx”
Google: “setting a timer for xxx, starting now”
Gemini: “I’m unable to set timers, please unlock your phone, open xxx and (lengthy step by step instructions)”, or “setting a timer for yyy” (completely wrong time).
They activated Gemini at work to auto-complete stuff in emails. I work in IT, and I was not aware of that. I was typing the sentence “we will need some help” and was about to add “in the project blah blah” but Gemini came with its amazing auto-completion and added something like “in the street where they sell sausages”.
AI was a mistake, and I didn’t use it since that day. Waste of time, waste of everything.
Good thing I never used Google Assistant then.
I feel bad for visually impaired.
I feel jealous for the hearing impaired. Just think of everyone and they’re dog showing off how dumb it is all the time.
Astute point, they’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater here and hurting the disabled community to push their inferior product that nobody really asked for.
Just because I don’t use it doesn’t mean others who need it also don’t.
It happens, we forget the sheet diversity of experiences because we’re human. I try to have multiperspectivity, but even that is limited to one’s own experiences and imaginative abilities, on the best days.
I actually use it a bunch for setting reminders and it does pretty good at that.
For sure, but I am also capable of doing that with my thumbs… which is what I do.
Will they hold the power button hostage again?
Yes
