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

  • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    44 minutes 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.

  • FireWire400@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    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…

    • ɔiƚoxɘup@infosec.pub
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      6 hours 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.

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    13 hours ago

    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.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 hours ago

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

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      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.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          7 hours ago

          I use it to set reminders and alarms. I don’t keep the “OK google” stuff on, I just hold the power button for a second or two until the assistant pops up (or at least used to, I haven’t done it in a while so I’m not sure if it’s stupid gemini now instead), then just say like, “remind me friday at 3pm to call the doctor” and it does it.

        • HiTekRedNek@lemm.ee
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          8 hours ago

          Set or change alarms, add reminders to your calendar, ask about those things, send text messages, start phone calls, have it read out last text messages received.

          When I was a truck driver, my wife could test me, and I could just listen to a transcript of what she sent instead of calling her and asking what she typed.

          “Hey Google, read my last text”

          “Hey Google, send a text to <wife>, 'Quit texting me while I’m driving, woman!” Stuff like that. 🤣

  • AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev
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    1 day ago

    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).

    • marsokod@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      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.

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours 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.

    • OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world
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      23 hours 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.

  • astro_plane@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    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.

    • Routhinator@startrek.website
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      7 hours ago

      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.

      • astro_plane@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        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?

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    🤣 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.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    20 hours ago

    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.

  • shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit@sh.itjust.works
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    24 hours ago

    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).

    • heavydust@sh.itjust.works
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      23 hours ago

      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.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 hours ago

      Seriously considering this for my next phone. I currently have a Pixel 6, so I’m thinking I’ll get another Pixel, try grapheneOS on the 6 to get comfortable with it, before doing it to the new phone.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        23 hours ago

        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.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
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          22 hours ago

          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.

    • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      I actually use it a bunch for setting reminders and it does pretty good at that.