Google Assistant will vanish from Android phones and connected devices in September
15 days ago by return2ozma to c/technology
Well this fucking sucks. Gemini is complete garbage in Android Auto, I thought I was stuck with it until I discovered a couple weeks ago that I could choose to continue using the assistant.
Now it's being ripped from my hands again.
This is total ass. Fuck Gemini. Fuck AI. Fuck Google.
Gemini is complete garbage in Android Auto
It also can't read labels on gmaps. Can't read people's "nickname" field in contacts (there are so many Roberts). And can't access or write notes without also requiring access to my emails (hell no).
Those are the three things I use AA for, and it's objectively worse at every single one of them.
Worse.
It will fucking lie and say it set a timer or reminder, and if you ask it "wtf" in response when it clearly didn't (if you notice), it'll fucking explain it's just roleplaying at being a voice assistant.
I have a Google Nest speaker in my kitchen and while cooking "Hey Google set a timer for 5 minutes" ... "I cannot do that at this time"
"Ask me again in 5 minutes."
If it makes you feel better, I'm sure someone in Google got the promotion they so desperately needed.
Oh for sure. They can proudly tell their shareholders that every one is using Gemini now, which I'm sure they'll eat that up even though we're all being forced into it with no recourse.
"Look, everyone is using YouTube Music! We are successful and smart!" [because we shut down Google Play Music and forced users to install YouTube Music, and measured the stats before they all uninstalled it]
OMFG.
Gemini is neat, but it SSUUUUUUUUCCCKKS at being a voice assistant.
It will frequently produce a fucking essay in response to being asked to turn the lights on or off.
I just gave it a go again, 30% of the time it pretends to do what you ask without actually doing it. 20% of the time it flat-out refuses while never failing to mention that I really should enable gemini activity tracking. 40% of the time is claims this functionality does not exist, even though it was given the ability to "ask assistant" to do things only it can do (like identify music by listening to it). 10% of the time it will successfully hand off to assistant, which will then instantly do as asked.
The problem is Google is treating all those functions ("tool calling") as just any other response, they didn't even bother training the model to recognize and process the requests properly using the tools. They did the Google thing of just putting the function in and calling a day and forgetting about it.
So without proper reinforcement learning it responds with the same casual randomized answer-shaped sequence of words as ever, you're just lucky if the part of it that knows to look up the tool call instructions responds, and luckier if it does it right AND submit the tool call formatted right. If it forgets to look up it's tool call instructions, it might randomly tell you it can't do it because you got an answer from a part of the network trained on data from when there weren't models that could.
I degoogled (mostly) a while ago, but home assistant has a pretty configurable local voice assistant. If you have remote access to your server, I imagine you could cobble together a good keyword based personal assistant that sets alarms, turns lights on and off, and reads you an RSS newsfeed while you drink your morning coffee.
We're truly on the technological downslope now. First it was all about the user and making software accomplish a purpose, then it was all about the user as long as it was profitable, now it's fuck the user - be profitable.
Personally I went out of my way to put physical buttons around my house so I can use Home Assistant automations without talking. It has the added bonus that guests can just turn the lights on and off without a tutorial.
I get a lot done with physical buttons and time / condition automations but sometimes it's nice to just do a one off action from the couch.
I've built some md5stack little speaker things and they work okay. Weird audio artifacts sometimes though.
It can definitely come in handy. Although I went as far as leaving a wireless Zigbee button by my couch so I can dim the lights or toggle power on my AV stuff without getting up. I haven't replaced the battery yet, and it's been 2 years.
I'm working on a project using esp32s to build my own Hal9000 system. Every room will have a small touch screen where you can control stuff in the room, but the screen saver will be HAL
I had everything either automated or timed but the ladies wanted a physical button in the bathroom. Ok I put one in, then they kept leaving the light on so I had to put in a 15 min timer. Buttons have their places. I also prefer not talking to it.
Yeah, I bet it's just getting replaced with AI bullshit now.
So, now, when you use it to set an alarm, you'll never really know for sure if the AI fucked it up or not.
What even is ownership?
Local-first for life.
The timing is crazy, that's around the same time that Google and Android is expected to start disappearing from thousands of phones.
Can the Gemini assistant set reminders yet? Such a basic function of the old Google assistant and yet Gemini has failed every time I tried it in the past
F: play Spotify (activated by multi button on headset)
A: Please unlock your phone yada yada yada
BRO! GUESS WHY I USED THE MULTI-BUTTON >:( I CAN'T USE MY HANDS TO UNLOCK IT AND PLAY MUSIC MANUALLY.
Because it doesn't know what time is or how to measure it or even how to count for that matter.
It's been abled to set alarms for me haven't tried reminders. I also use it to create events from me on my calendar.
It connects to my Google home now too, which it wasn't able to do before
Assistant tasks like this are probably the only semi reasonable LLM use case. If it was less resource intensive anyway
You don't really need a powerful LLM for personal assistant tasks.
Even the small ones are resource hogs.
Breaking news, google spyware removed in favour of another google slop spyware
This literally happened to me today while driving
Me: Text wife Gemini: Texting wife, what would you like in the message? Me: Can you pop my lunch in the microwave? I am going to be home in 5 minutes. Gemini: While I can't put food in the microwave for you, I can set a reminder.
What the fuck?
Today was the first day I noticed Gemini instead of assistant, and from the other complaints here, I am not looking forward this. Assistant worked just fine.
Honestly I don't understand how Google is such a valuable company. They are absolutely useless for so much shit.
It's really bad.
Gross.
I use GA to spell shit for me because I have senior moments. It's just easier to click a button and say spell naseaous for me.
See? Fuck that word. Also fuck Google. For more reasons than just this.
Because it makes you feel sick, in so many words?
Need a follow up on this, since I've always assumed that package is essential.
- Is this on a Pixel?
- What happens to the space where the search bar is on the launcher?
- Does it break anything else?
I'm on graphene and I don't have it even with gsf and google play stuff installed
- Nah, I have a non-unlockable Xperia, otherwise I'd just flash custom firmware
- I don't remember the search bar, it disappears i guess. The circle button that used to summon assistant now does nothing
- Deleting this package is safe. Just don't delete system-related packages. Once I was cleaning up someone's Xiaomi and tried to delete its antivirus with adb. It was stuck in boot loop after that so i had to do hard reset (deleting all data)
I use home automation to help manage a disability and have been meaning to move to home assistant but right now I'm still using google home devices...
Guess that means I have to move up my schedule. Really wish I did this before the ai hardware price spike like I was considering doing.
Can't wait to go see if thin client or needed components will cost me a billion dollars. ALSO BECAUSE OF AI. Fucking stupid horseshit, I have no money
Read the articleโฆ.
There are no changes on Google TV, Google Home or smart displays at this stage.
Thanks! Meant to come back and give it a read so I could learn specifics but really didn't wanna try to wade through stressful stuff right now
Though my trust it will stay that way is not super high ๐
Home assistant integrates with Google Home devices as well, so you can start small with your HASS OS device and make a slow transition of your GH devices as you change them out (or retain them). My best friend loves his HASS and GH, and uses them both heavily with HASS as the main driver.
My grandmother used it for calling. She'd long press the home button and say 'Call Aliya' etc. It has stopped working last week, in both google assistant and gemini. If anyone knows an alternative, please let me know.
You might have to remap the home button to Gemini maybe?
It also can't connect to Google home without being unlocked nor set your navigation to an address in your contacts, or as far as I can tell do anything useful at all.
Oh and I almost forgot it will also fucking block other apps from doing shit that they used to be able to do because it decided that something in your phrase is a key word.
Seems to be a case of dumb incentives winning. If you evolve the google assistant to be more powerful, it's a "small" quite project, but you build a big foundational replacement and wow promotion
Justโฆ perfect Google. Bravo.
To preserve our privacy? (insert Padmรฉ and Anakin stare meme)
It was a convenient way to set a kitchen timer. I never used it for anything else but this is still gonna hurt.
Considering when I first upgraded to a phone that included it, Gemini was incapable of setting a timer, I do not have high hopes for this.
This is to say, when I told it "set a timer for X minutes" it produced a UI on the phone that suggested it understood I wanted a timer, but failed the critical step of actually setting the damn timer. I immediately switched back to assistant, as there's really no coming back from a fuck-up that comprehensive.
This was pretty much the only thing I used Google Assistant for. I bought six Google devices. I thought I would use it for more things, but I ended up just using it for timers when making food or when I was resting and wanted to rest for 30 minutes before I do some chore.
Never used it. Always first thing I disable
That's fine. Google devices have been disappearing from my life as well, so this will not be a long-term problem.
De-googled my phones when they continued pushing this. Google TV is a little harder but turning off voice input and loading a 3rd party launcher fixes most issues for now.
ITT: โhow could Google ruin shit and foist worse shit on me!?!โ
Bruh, itโs Google.
It's a shame, now I'll never get to try it...
At the very least my still remaining google home (bought in 2017 or something) became somewhat useful now and is able to understand context.
E.g.:
F: When's the next solar eclipse starting in Germany
A: In Germany, Cologne the eclipse will be visible at XY
F: No, when will it be in hometown
A: The eclipse in hometown XYZ
Before it was completely incapable of achieving it and was basically a glorified voice activated timer.
The air freshener original device?
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Fuck everything about this: Gemini sucks!
save