this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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This means:

  • Downloading or updating the Assistant app now gives you Gemini instead.
  • You can switch back to Assistant in the Gemini app settings.
  • This might be Google's first step towards replacing Assistant completely with Gemini.
  • Some users are unaware of the switch and see two Gemini apps on their phones.

Overall, this may suggest Google is phasing out Assistant and transitioning users to the newer Gemini AI technology.

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[–] Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de 59 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  1. Open developer options on the phone and turn ADB to ON.
  2. Connect the PC to the phone with a cable.
  3. Open terminal.
  4. Run "adb uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.googleassistant".
  5. Enjoy your private life.
[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Can't profit without AI! /s

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[–] ryan213@lemmy.ca 58 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Do people use Assistant for more than just reminders, weather, and directions? Lol Just curious because that's all I use it for.

[–] charles@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago (7 children)

"set a timer for X minutes" And "set an alarm for X AM" are super helpful

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I've tried one extra layer of complexity - "Remind me to water the plants when I get home" or something like that. It has no idea what I'm asking it to do despite knowing the "remind me" phrase and knowing where my home is.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It used to work years ago. It's not a technology problem. They changed their policy around location based reminders. One of the reasons I'm degoogling. I got rid of apple products too when they got rid of Google maps in favour of apple maps. Forcing a poorer product on users shows contempt for users.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But you can install any map app you like? There are plenty of legitimate reasons to not use an iPhone, but that's not one of them.

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[–] uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Add X to Y list is great for when you run out of something in the kitchen.

[–] Plopp@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

X is already on my Why? list.

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[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Simple timers, controlling the lights, background music, reminders, and occasionally thing like "how many tablespoons in a pint".

I don't ask it for the weather because I don't want a 30 second lecture on the weather, and it won't give me "cold now, hot later, might rain between".

Given that Gemini seem to be unable to give short answers, and it can't control stuff, it's missing most of what I require.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Odd I seem to be able to control all my IOT devices no problem so far from Gemini with voice commands over the phone. This way included all smart switches and lights, thermostats and so on.

It seems to function a little quicker in response with the voice commands IMO.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Oh interesting. I'll have to check it out again. When I first tried it I asked it to turn off the lights and it said it couldn't interact with the outside world, a d some searching said they hadn't implemented that yet, so away it went.

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[–] original_reader@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

You use the assistant?

[–] tiredofsametab@kbin.run 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've only ever activated it by accident (I think it's double-click the power button on my phone). Never actually used the thing.

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[–] Horsey@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

I do a job where my hands are potentially full and I cannot touch my phone for extended periods of time. I use the assistant for as much as it will let me...

[–] Drigo@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

"Make a big farting noice" is very popular with my kids

[–] kratoz29@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I only use it for opening Pocket Cast lol.

BTW if anyone has an alternative for Pocket Casts that is free and multiplatform I'm all ears lol (so far Spotify seems like a good alternative, but I don't like it as a Podcast replacement app).

[–] rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I moved to Antennapod then ended up using Audiobookshelf since I was already hosting it for my wife's audiobooks.

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[–] 0x2d@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 year ago (4 children)

yay, more nonsense added to stock android (degoogle now)

[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago (10 children)

After being on Graphene for the past 2 years,I decided to reinstall with no google at all,since my bank app now works without any google services dependencies.

hooray for me,I'm finally free and can profit from multiuser installed sandboxed services in another user profile if needed.

Glad to be out of this downward spiral.

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[–] soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't wait for home assistant assist to be good enough to replace Gemini as a assistant. Without the need for an llm

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[–] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Is this gonna be one of those tech bandwagon things that Google fails at so consistently? You know, like Google phones, Google Plus, Google Pay, Google Stadia, Google Your Poodle, etc.

[–] Tagger@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Google phones are some of the most popular in the marketplace (and their os is the most popular in the world) and Google pay works absolutely fine - I use it everyday, albeit with the new name of wallet.

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Google pay and google phones are failures?

Both are THE standard for their respective industries, what you on about?

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[–] chokidar@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your device is not your device. Google's device, google's rules!

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[–] Chozo@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's default? When I downloaded it, I had to manually choose Gemini to be the default. It wasn't set like that for me.

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[–] solidgrue@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Haha, Google. I already type my dumb questions at DuckDuckGo

Srsly... Gemini is pretty cool tho. When I want an AI at least. (Rarely)

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

And it still won't be as useful as Google Now

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

it's not as if the default assistant was actually good. can't make it any worse, at least

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

And somehow they did. It can't interact with things like lights that the other one can.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I knew they were going to end up going full gemini, but this seems too soon to pull such shenanigans, considering it's still slow to respond, can't do several things that assistantcan do, and is 100% useless when not on data.

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[–] le_saucisson_masquay@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Make yourself a favor, delete this crap and instead use a real open source (means apache2) AI that performs even better than chatgpt4 or Google ai. Get Mistral 7B.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Good recommendation.

Probably won’t hit quite GPT-4 levels of performance but still good.

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[–] krimson@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The AI part runs in the cloud or on the phone?

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Cloud. LLMs aren't there where they can be run on phones at conversational speed yet.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They absolutely are if you run something like open chat 1.5B, they just want to lock people into their ecosystem.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I guess you can scale it down enough. But if it's worse than chatgpt 3.5 people will call it terrible and that's not really what they want right now

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[–] alansuspect@aussie.zone 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What if I don't use Assistant? Does it still have access to other parts of my phone?

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[–] wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm confused. There is no assistant app as far as I can tell. It seems to just be part of the OS.

I don't see a Gemini app either though.

[–] Squire1039@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Google assistant "app": https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googleassistant&hl=en&gl=US

I think once it's rolled out in your region, the assistant will pester you to switch to Gemini.

There is no Gemini app of any kind for me either.

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[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Can you set reminders/timers with it?

[–] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Gemini, set an alert for when Google dumps you and goes back to the assistant."

[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 5 points 1 year ago

😭I just want convenient software that makes my life better, is that too much to ask

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