Google Assistant is being replaced by Gemini. Here's all you need to know:
The writing has been on the wall for a while, but the shift away from Google Assistant is now official. Google has announced that it will shift users to Gemini as the default AI assistant on their devices in the coming months. Once that happens, they will no longer be able to access the Google Assistant.
At the moment, you can switch to Google Assistant as the default option on your Android phone, even on newer phones that come with Gemini running out of the box. In addition to phones, Google will be giving a similar treatment to smartwatches, Android Auto, tablets, smart home devices, TVs, and audio gear.
New Features and Capabilities of Gemini:
“We’re also bringing a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays, and TVs,” says Google, without sharing a specific time frame for the transition. What happens to Google Assistant following the transition? Well, it will be removed from devices and will no longer be available to download from app stores.
Talking about apps, Gemini can already interact with a wide range of Google’s own as well as a few third-party apps. Users can ask it to perform chores across different products, without ever having to open those apps. In addition to in-house apps such as Docs, Drive, and Gmail, the Gemini assistant can also perform tasks in third-party apps such as WhatsApp and Spotify, alongside a bunch of Samsung apps.
Upgrade to Gemini:
Following is the broad list of comparability for devices that will be upgraded to Gemini in the coming months: The virtual assistant on your headphones will match the one currently installed on your phone. An exception will be the budget-centric Android Go phones, which run a simplified and pure Google-only experience of the operating system.
Let’s start at the basic level. In case you are concerned about any change in the activation hotword, there is no reason for concern here. The “Hey Google” vocal cue will continue to work as the hotword for summoning Gemini, just the way it worked for Google Assistant. For devices that haven’t been transitioned to Gemini, using the “Hey Google” hotword will summon the Google Assistant without any feature limitations.
Data Transfer and Personalization:
In order to make the switch seamless, especially in terms of familiarity for users, Google will also be porting over some of the user data from Google Assistant to Gemini. Assuming users have already provided the necessary on-device permissions, Gemini will automatically get access to details such as calls and messaging history.
“We will use some preferences and history from Google Assistant when we upgrade your device to Gemini,” says Google in a support document. Gemini will also take a look at your Search history to give more personalized answers and will be able to interact with Photos in the future.
Capabilities of Gemini:
Gemini is almost a fundamental upgrade over Google Assistant, down to the foundation tech stack. Where Google Assistant was an AI product built atop natural language understanding capabilities, Gemini stands out as a natural language chatbot that is capable of language understanding as well as reasoning.
Unlike Google Assistant, Gemini is more like a knowledge bank that has been trained on a whole corpus of information and works offline for a wide range of on-device tasks. It can handle free-flowing conversations in multiple languages and is capable of understanding various input formats, including PDF files, pictures, text, audio, and live video.
Unique Features of Gemini:
But there are a few other features that go far beyond what Google Assistant could ever accomplish. For example, the newly free Deep Research tool can perform comprehensive web research and create reports in minutes. Gems, which is a user-generated custom version of Gemini, is another standout feature that is now available for free to all users.
Gemini comes in multiple formats, each with its own set of capabilities. Users can choose between models based on the complexity of the task they need assistance with, making Gemini a versatile and powerful AI assistant.
In a nutshell, Gemini is a massive upgrade over Google Assistant, offering enhanced capabilities and versatility for users. With the upcoming release of Project Astra, Gemini is poised to offer even more advanced features and functionalities for a seamless user experience.
