AI assistants are getting smarter, but Google’s Gemini rollout appears to have claimed a victim: Google Assistant. A little like that scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron where the titular baddie takes over Jarvis, Gemini is coming for its predecessor.
It’s not just with phones, either. Gemini is even going to make big changes to Nest range of smart home products, with a series of features being cut.
Live Translation in Interpreter mode, which allowed for Nest devices to translate in real-time, is gone, while Family Bell and Birthday reminder notifications are going the way of the digital dodo, too.
Google Assistant is being phased out
Elsewhere, several other features are being removed as the company switches over to Gemini as its primary assistant of choice.
Google Assistant will no longer be able to share photos via voice commands, while you also won’t be able to adjust photo frame settings using your voice.
Small features, sure, but ones you may have grown to use regularly.
If you’ve been asking for Google Assistant to send you a daily rundown of things like the weather and your meetings, you’ll need to set those manually going forward.
You also won’t be able to use Assistant via Bluetooth or AUX accessories, either.
Google launched the Assistant back in 2016 and claims that the time has come to sunset the feature in favor of the new AI hotness.
“To continue our work of building the world’s most helpful assistant, we’ve reimagined the experience with AI at its core to make Gemini your personal, AI-powered assistant,” the company said in a blog post. “While our expectations for what an assistant can do are rapidly changing, the mission remains the same.”
The good news is that these features will almost certainly make a comeback, most likely within Gemini. And if you haven’t yet gotten to grips with Google Gemini, here’s the seven hacks you need to know to maximise its full potential.
