if they want me to switch to Gemini atleast make Gemini more ethical atleast
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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hey Google turn airco off
Gemini: great idea! go for it!
I have used Assistant for 3 things, setting timers, sending email reminders to myself, and navigation. Since refusing Gemini on my phone Google has made email reminders worse because you have to tap Send manually, and navigation by voice doesn't work at all. "navigate to sams club in asheville north carolina" now results in "I don't understand" so I've got to type in destinations like a caveman. And it's much less safe while driving.
I'm not using Gemini, today's AI has no respect for boundaries or privacy. In September if my phone doesn't allow me to disable Gemini and just do things manually (which is still a loss of functionality over a year or 2 ago) then I will buy an old Pixel and finally switch to GrapheneOS. Not going to iOS.
Gemini — our next-generation AI-powered assistant — is now the assistant experience on Android.
Whenever a company calls a piece of software "an experience" you know they know it sucks donkey balls
I would never use Google assistant so not using Gemini seems easy enough.
I am surprised to hear people say "but gemini will want all my data!" As if assistant didn't do it too.
I have a strong feeling that Gemini won't be optional. It will be running on your phone and going through the contents whether you use it or not.
There is no Gemini on my Pixel. It runs GrapheneOS.
I fucking hate this. Assistant did what it was told, Gemini just gets in the way (when it even properly interprets what I asked for).
Yea, I only used assistant for setting up timers with my voice command while cooking and it worked just fine. A few months ago I somehow activated gemini instead of the assistant and it said "sure, i've setup timer for X minutes" but in reality nothing happened, atleast not in my default clock app.
Also "I can't set reminders yet"
Like what the fuck
There is literally no other app I've used on my phone less than any sort of "assistant", AI or otherwise.
I can add my own calendar events and to-do notes, thank...you...very...much. I have thumbs. And I'm not self-important enough to feel like I just don't have the 30 seconds it takes to use them to set a reminder or a quick note.
Does that make me old-fashioned, sure. But I prefer it that way.
Oh man, people who knows me would swear I could have written that comment. But truth be told I have two use cases for ga: hands free timers while cooking, and sending SMS messages while driving. Ok maybe three because setting a destination in google maps while driving is also pretty neat.
Calendar and the rest, no thank you. I can do that perfectly fine manually.
but gemini is no where near feature parity, especially using it for control in android auto or google home. Plus you have to allow all your data be ingested by gemini just to use it. Gross
The second part is why they're doing it, they don't give a shit about the first part.
Do~~n't~~ be evil.
now i only have to disable one thing instead of two. it is wild how they went from something i truly used like google now to something i actively avoid.
Then it's finally time to remove the smart speakers from my house. We all know Google only wants to kill assistant off so that Gemini can be listening to us full-time intelligently. I hate this timeline, we need constitutional protections for our privacy.
Then there needed to be a riot in 2025 that exceeded 1/6/2021.
This makes android auto voice useless to me. I don't need an Ai arguing with me when im trying to find a coffee shop while driving
"You can only choose songs with a spotify premium subscription" - proceeds to use my premium subscription to play my song.
It is so bad compared to the assistant, it actually made me delete gemini off my phone just so I could use the GA voice setup again.
They also manage to get weird results. I askd for Oasis and kept getting weird asian tracks or covers.
"You need a YouTube music account to play "bad blood by Taylor switch on spotify"
Like what the actual fuck.
Are you saying that gemini is even worse that ga at playing music from spotify? I have a hard time believing that, but I guess nothing's impossible if you really set your mind...
I mean asking ga to play some classic rock, and it'll pick a live version, ask for some pop track from your youth and you get a speed metal banjo cover version.
100%
The issue is two fold.
It either hears it and spotify plays with something way way off the beaten track of the search results
Or it says something like "you need to give access to gemini", "you need a spotify premium account", "you can adjust your settings in the gemini or android auto app", "I don't respond to that language, I am here to help if you require anything further"
IIRC Assistant killed Google Now.
Google Now and Play Music existed at the same time. We were so optimistic. We were so naive.
Then the ghouls decided that the imaginary numbers weren't rising quickly enough.
I still miss Play Music. I'm using Doubletwist now which is fine, but a little clunky
I've been using YouTube music this whole time because life is pain anyways.
It's the ciiircle of liiiife. . .
You either die a hero or you live long enough to be killed by Google
killedbygoogle.com
I've still yet to ever find an assistant app useful, but I have mine set to Google Assistant instead of Gemini as it seems like the lesser of two evils. Does this mean I'll have to have Gemini active now?
I would imagine the next uodate you get will change the default
I wish i could have figured out how to go back to assistant. I tried gemini and instantly hated it since it couldn't set a timer
Any open source assistant apps? Can I just use DeepSeek and z.ai? I would never use gemini
There's a few on f-droid that use local LLMs if you look around, Kai 9000 seems decent
home assistant
I'd settle on a fake assistant that just served to disable Gemini. But I expect Gemini is so baked into Android that it will still be active.