OK, Google: Are you killing Assistant and replacing it with Gemini?
- Reference: 1742191273
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/03/17/google_assistant_eol_gemini_replacement/
- Source link:
Assistant debuted in 2016 and offered what Google [1]called a “conversational interface” that could “enjoy entertainment, manage everyday tasks, and get answers from Google”.
Receiving assistance from the Assistant required users to either mash an icon or utter the key phrase “OK Google”, then speak a command. The tool was included with Android and many Google services. Google also baked the assistant into its smart speakers and smart home gadgetry, and allowed third party hardware manufacturers to do so too.
[2]
Developers were wooed to put Assistant to work with “Actions” that allowed the tool to perform custom tasks.
[3]
[4]
To illustrate actions, Google imagined a hypothetical website called “Heavy Metal Detector” that offered a gig guide and news for aficionados of loud rock music. Google suggested the operator of such a site would build an action that allowed users to speak prompts such as “OK, Google. Talk to Heavy Metal Detector to find metal concerts.”
Sadly, Assistant is not very good. In your correspondent’s experience it would often struggle to interpret the above request for info about metal gigs. And a smart speaker in a distant room was as likely to respond to a prompt as one at arm’s length.
[5]
In 2022 our columnist Mark Pesce [6]opined that the whole category of voice assistants had failed because nobody used them for anything other than playing music and countdown timers.
In 2023, Google retired Actions, suggesting Mark was right.
[7]Google teases AI Mode for search, giving Gemini total control over your results
[8]Google to Iran: Yes, we see you using Gemini for phishing and scripting. We're onto you
[9]Google Gemini 2.0 Flash comes out with real-time conversation, image analysis
[10]DeepSeek's not the only Chinese LLM maker OpenAI and pals have to worry about. Right, Alibaba?
Google now seems to have tired of Assistant, too, as a Friday [11]post announced it will be replaced by the Big G’s shiny new generative AI toy, Gemini.
“Over the coming months, we’re upgrading more users on mobile devices from Google Assistant to Gemini; and later this year, the classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices,” wrote Gemini app senior director for product management Brian Marquardt.
“Additionally, we’ll be upgrading tablets, cars and devices that connect to your phone, such as headphones and watches, to Gemini,” he added.
[12]
Marquardt also promised “a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays and TVs” with details to come “in the next few months.”
Marquardt’s post offers no detail about that new experience, but opens with the following observation: “We believe an assistant should be personal to you, and aware of the world around you. It should be able to interact with the apps and services you already use. And it should make you more productive, more creative and a bit more curious.”
It’s also possible that Gemini might also make you a little poorer, because Samsung – which is all-in on Google's AI in its latest Galaxy S smartphones – has recently [13]warned buyers of its hardware that they may one day require a subscription to access AI features provided by partners. As of January 2025, the Korean giant said it would be at least a year before AI subscriptions arrived ... which would be a few months after the death of Google Assistant. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.google/products/assistant/io-building-next-evolution-of-google/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z9gA2HDoPoLikXTPFZJvnQAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z9gA2HDoPoLikXTPFZJvnQAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z9gA2HDoPoLikXTPFZJvnQAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z9gA2HDoPoLikXTPFZJvnQAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/14/voice_assistants_failed/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/06/google_launches_ai_mode_for/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/31/state_spies_google_gemini/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/11/google_gemini_20_flash_shines/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/30/alibaba_qwen_ai/
[11] https://blog.google/products/gemini/google-assistant-gemini-mobile/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z9gA2HDoPoLikXTPFZJvnQAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/22/samsung_galaxy_s25/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Nooooo.
On one hand I'll miss being able to easily turn the lights on and off, which is one of the few things the speakers can do now. On the other I'm kind of intrigued to see how it can get worse.
Re: Nooooo.
When Gemini first came out I switched over to it and found it kept doing the chatbot thing of "answering me" instead of triggering the commands. I couldn't turn off my lights, so I turned off Gemini.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to test if they have resolved this issue, as Gemini does not work for me any more. If I set my phone's assistant to Gemini then it ignores me! I set it to flash the screen when activated, and when I say the activation phrase it flashes the screen and the microphone comes on for exactly 2 seconds - but that is all that happens!
This is a shame, because elsewhere I have found Gemini to be the best performing model. I have put Gemini on my vscode both at work (with permission) and my personal system. It gives useful suggestions more often than copilot and is actually worth replacing the default autocomplete complete with. Additionally I have been testing putting the Gemini multimodal API inside applications and it is impressive when properly integrated in to something.
Re: Nooooo.
I'll not comment on your own use of AI because, that's like, your opinion, man.
But please leave your "testing putting the Gemini multimodal API inside applications" in the testing phase only, to spare the rest of us that don't want AI shoved into everything for a multitude of reasons. Thanks.
Subs mean an off switch
If the subs mean it is easier to control the off switch for this then that is a bonus. Trying to setup a new phone without triggering the dumb assistant thing is frustrating.
Re: Subs mean an off switch
And that's why they won't do it. Given a choice between losing the data of millions of users and giving away the means of collecting that data for free, they'll choose the latter every time.
Re: Subs mean an off switch
Considering the massive computing (power/cooling) cost that Gemini must incur, I don't know about that.
In-car use?
Android Auto only accepts voice input while the vehicle is moving. Requiring a subscription for that might (one hopes) raise eyebrows at consumer rights regulators...
Heavy Metal Detector
I now imagine the Heavy Metal app users shouting.
OK GOOGLE! I SAID OK ... GOOGLE ...
You see, it's very loud ...
I'll get me coat.
Re: Heavy Metal Detector
I'll get it for you.
Re: Heavy Metal Detector
From the article: In your correspondent’s experience it would often struggle to interpret the above request for info about metal gigs. -- what did it do? Ignored your request? Asked you to speak again more clearly? Suggested Barry Manilow concerts?
Re: Heavy Metal Detector
"Turn that bloody music down"
Hi Google!
Hi Google!
...
...
...
Hi Google!
...
...
Haaaay Goooogle!
...
...
Hi Google!!!
...
*giving up*
*turning on the radio*
talkshow host says some rubbish
*ping!*
Google assistant: Here are Chinese restaurants in your area...
Re: Hi Google!
Obligatory:
[1]Eleven!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbDnxzrbxn4
Re: Hi Google!
Paying for Gemini in our Lord's year 2026 to have it tell ye to be calm.
a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays and TVs
Each time I run into communication babbling about "new experience" it results in the experience being worse than it was before.
Did I mention that there is no way back to the old experience either ?
And no alternative (official or otherwise) because you're shoved the new experience down your throat… And told to like it. You don't know what you want, heathen!
A subscription to enable AI?
I would rather pay in order to not auto-invoke AI.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Never used Assistant, won't use Gemini AI any time soon
The death of assistants
In many ways, assistants were promised to be like artificial intelligence, in the sense they would understand what you meant and would react to your commands. That's when the movie Her came out. The problem is that there was hardly any intelligence behind, so each separate action had to be coded manually and maintained individually by an army of developers. They were already having trouble maintaining existing actions when ChatGPT came out, and that pretty much sealed their fate. I'm not entirely sure that AI stuff like Gemini can even replace them though. It's probably going to be a while before Gemini can be asked to turn on the lights or play a song — and I wouldn't be surprised if the connections to the light and sound systems and everything else still needs to be maintained by an army of developers.
Re: The death of assistants
I actually quite liked Google's approach, though I never used it to things that it was easier to do manually and didn't require data harvesting. At the time, chatbots could only really worked in vertical domains, but quickly became a replacement for many tedious telephone menus "press one for technical support, two for accounts, etc.…" and this is where Google quietly made some money by selling them to industry.
LLM means, in theory, that it's easier to provide more general support and, of course, the assistants provided a treasure trove of "conversations" on which to train them.
DeGoogling your phone is where you want to go. For all the shade Apple gets, their cautious approach to AI is good for users - as they actually consider it be useful AI, rather than AI for the sake of it.
Saying that maybe this is a sign to move to everyone's roll your own AI?
"Marquardt also promised “a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays and TVs” with details to come “in the next few months.” "
I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that until you've paid your subscription...