this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
215 points (97.4% liked)

Technology

66584 readers
3864 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

We’re upgrading Google Assistant users on mobile to Gemini, offering a new kind of help only possible with the power of AI.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

When your hands are wet or you can't grab your phone....the one thing I used Google assistant for, Gemini can't do.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 46 minutes ago

I also use Gemini Assistant to set my timers and have never had an issue.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

If you still have Google Assistant, it will tell you it can't set an alarm, and then tell you to try setting an alarm using Google Assistant

[–] [email protected] 1 points 57 minutes ago

Oh I still have Google assistant as my main assistant. I just switched it to Gemini for the screenshot

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

I miss now on tap

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Gemini works as a general search engine, but it's trash at everything else.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago

Translation: your phone runs fine right now.... Well not anymore! Introducing more Bloatware! Your phone has never crawled like this before.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

I don't want that at all. Well I guess I can't use hands free anymore. Thanks google.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 17 hours ago

Terrible idea. Every time I look at toggling it on just to test, it explicitly lists features that I use as ones which will be disabled by the switch.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

I have no idea of the difference other than I feel slightly like a downgrade when I cant do simple things that Inused to be able to. The biggest difference isnlikely to be my privacy and data.

Google on tap was all I needed and they have removed and it readded it multiple times...it is currently the only gemini feature I use. And its not a gemini feature.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Gemini is hardly an uprade to Assistant, though. Gemini can't do any task automation (aka the one thing Google Assistant could do) because it's a LLM that most likely doesn't even 'know' that it's being run on a phone....

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

They already fucked up assistant so bad that it can't even set timers anymore... )):

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Yes. This is why I've disabled it repeatedly when it supplants my assistant.

If they remove automation, well, that was the one thing standing between me and de-googling.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I am sure they are working on automation with Gemini when they replace assistant

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

I don't know if they can really do that since Gemini is just an LLM at its core. Maybe they could integrate Assistant functionality into Gemini on Android that's then triggered by certain keywords, but at that point why not just keep both Assistant and Gemini?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Google assistant was already a good listener, it seems to have gotten worse, but compared to anything else I've tried to do with voice it was & is still the best at understanding, and can be set to be bilingual.

I honestly don't understand this but it's very Google to push the change before the replacement is fully baked. They did that with YouTube Music too.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Exactly, and maybe I'm a outlier, but I have no intention of speaking to my device like it's a human. Ever.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Mine does reminders and events now. It can also do Google home stuff.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, too bad, i have replaced Google on my phone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What setup you currently running?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

GrapheneOS is the only one that can really sever the Google connection. LineageOS is kind of a halfway point but still relies on an amount of Google to function.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

Meh, the GPS SUPL thing might be the only one for me, but i prefer good location. I use Cromite and never used Captive Portals.

https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/cldohl/how_to_degoogle_lineageos_in_2019/

[–] [email protected] 110 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Gemini might be good at something, but I'll never know because it is bad at all the things I have ever used the assistant for. If it's good at anything at all, it's something I don't need or want.

Looking forward to 2027 when Google Gemini is replaced by Google Assistant (not to be confused with today's Google Assistant, totally different product).

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Seriously, I tried Gemini for a while but it is mostly useless. It can it open my apps, cannot control Home Assistant, cannot send a message to someone.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Yeah, it has a total lack of any of the integrations that made Assistant actually useful.

Even if an LLM offers meaningful improvements on the core conversational elements of Assistant, launching it without all the needed integrations is idiotic and completely hamstrings the functionality.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

I swapped to Gemini for a month or two. Kept thinking to myself "maybe I'm not speaking clearly," and other justifications. Turns out it just sucks. Now I just do everything manually. Fuck em.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 day ago (2 children)

🤣 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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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 no clue why. So many people with older phones are going to need to upgrade because of this forced update. Talk about e-waste.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It probably already is. AICore is a service thats been getting snuck on the andoids for a couple of months, ever since AndroidSystemSafety was push on silently, which is effectively like recall and scans all your photos and files in the background.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks for letting know about system safety, I just removed it. Play store said my xperia isn't compatible with AICore so I got lucky with that. Wish I could switch to lineage buty bootloader is locked.

Anything else I should remove?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

not remove but there is an apk that acts as safety core so that it doesn't "accidentally" pop back up on your phone after an update.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No fucking thanks! Gemini is garbage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

But Google likes garbage...

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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).

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Granted I've a N Irish Belfast accent but Assistant pretty much always got exactly what I said. They've definetly gimped the speech recognition in Gemini I tried show me a picture of a jet and it responded with here's a picture of a unique job title.

There's wrong and there's how the hell.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Google Assistant: Let's build a product around functionality.

Gemini: Let's build functionality around a product.

Any guess which method works better?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Once again, thank goodness for GrapheneOS.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Seriously considering this for my next phone. I currently have a Pixel, so I'm thinking I'll get another Pixel, try grapheneOS on the one I have to get comfortable with it, before doing it to the new phone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

The switch was much easier than expected.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Good thing I never used Google Assistant then.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Same here. Really looking forward to not using their new product. How exciting.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›