When it comes to an on-demand mobile assistant, we don't need the ability to have mediocre text or creepy images created for us from anywhere on Android. We need a fast, consistent, and reliable system for interacting with our phone and other connected devices, performing tasks with our main productivity services, and receiving short bursts of basic information spoken aloud in response to simple questions.
Google Assistant did it. It did it with a familiar, recognizable brand that Google has worked tirelessly to develop over the past few years and a familiar, recognizable voice that Android users have come to trust and love. To throw all that away now to create an entirely new system that introduces unnecessary and out-of-place add-ons and doesn’t perform the Assistant’s core functions as effectively is a baffling (but entirely Google-esque, in the most ridiculous way imaginable) decision.
Now, we're polishing the Assistant, fixing its issues, and adding Gemini as a optional complement that you could convene For its generative capabilities, if and when such a need arises? That It might make a lot of sense, but positioning Gemini as a totally replacement For the Assistant to be so much worse at just about everything is a terribly odd decision, one that seems to be trying too hard to make the wrong tool work for a very specific purpose.
So, yes: on the one hand, Google moving toward this more sensible-sounding setup is a welcome change. But at the same time, the company is sticking to its current Gemini strategy as a full Assistant replacement everywhere (including, crucially, Android), which only serves to make things worse. further awkward and confusing, with a complete lack of consistency from one Google product to another.
Just to be clear, this is not just a name. It is a identity – and a baseIt's about how people perceive, understand and interact with this service that plays such an important role in the entire ecosystem of Google platforms, products and services.
Around the world, people are already bewildered and unsure about what is happening to that fundamental part of their experience. And sadly, it seems that sense of confusion is only going to get worse.
