Since Google launched Gemini and rolled it out across various services with great fanfare, we can see that the voice assistant on Android phones has become somewhat awkward. Although Google says it will continue to invest in and improve the voice assistant, various signs indicate that it is gradually being edged out by Gemini. Moreover, recent reports from foreign media show that the voice assistant is slowly losing some of its features.
Android’s Google Assistant is gradually weakening, slowly losing some of its features.
Google Assistant on Android is being further scaled back, and this isn’t the first time. In early 2024, Google disabled nearly 20 different Assistant features across Android, smart speakers, and smart displays. While many of those were parts that users didn’t often use, the latest round of cuts will cost you some things you’re still actively using.
Since last year, Google has been continuously adding new features to Gemini, introducing new models, and working to improve the AI assistant so that it can one day truly replace voice assistants. In February 2024, we first saw it begin to take over, but Google made it optional, letting users choose which one to use. Over the past year, however, Google has been actively pushing Gemini toward users, and this goal is about to enter a phase of rapid development.
As many Android users may have noticed, the voice assistant has gradually become harder to find and harder to use. Summoning Google Assistant on devices now requires finding a new method in the settings. Now, it looks like the Assistant on Android phones and Nest devices will lose another 7 features. When Google announced last week that Gemini would take over, it quietly included a note saying that Assistant features would be weakened and removed.Newly updated support pageConfirming that Google will continue to improve the voice assistant, prioritizing the experiences you love and investing in the underlying technology to make it better, this also seems to indicate that some underutilized features will no longer be supported.
9to5Google Discovered that the following features are about to be discontinued:
- Use voice to save, share, and ask about the location and time of photos. You can still save and share photos in the Google Photos app, and view the location and time of photos on smart displays and tablets.
- Change frame settings or ambient mode settings by voice. You can still change frame settings in the Smart Screen settings.
- Use interpretation mode to translate real-time conversations, but translating individual words or phrases from one language to another still works.
- Receive birthday reminder notifications in your daily schedule. You can still have Google Assistant set reminders for important birthdays.
- Request to schedule or listen to a previously scheduled family announcement.
- Get daily updates from Google Assistant, for example, “send me the weather every day.” Instead, you can schedule updates when you create a custom routine.
- Use Google Assistant on car accessories with a Bluetooth connection or an AUX plug.
Although these aren’t features that millions of Android users use daily and are very popular, nor are they the best Nest Hub or speaker features, they’re still items that fans have grown accustomed to over the past few years, and soon they’ll stop working entirely. Even worse, we don’t know when these features will be removed from voice assistant devices. Google hasn’t given any timeline, only mentioning that users will start receiving notifications when using one of these features, letting them know it will soon be retired and stop working.
Source: KOCPC Chinese