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Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

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Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#21

Post by selicos »

Magicrafter13 wrote: post #8

Google Assistant is going away, to be replaced by - checks notes - Google Assistant by a different name. k Tangentially related, does anyone know any FOSS (local preferred, but self hosted if required for performance) assistant apps? After switching to GrapheneOS I do miss Bixby (say what you want about it, but creating reminders/alarms by merely holding down a button and using natural speech was quite handy).

Another name and worse experience. Bloated, heavy, slow, bad with voice commands, and overall much more annoying to work with.

One of the few things google did better than Apple was the minimal assistant. That's gone. Gemini is just worse.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#22

Post by selicos »

Tactical45 wrote: post #7
jessfyi wrote: post #4

Always stuck to the flagship google models as my primary driver (starting with the G1 in college) for the pure google experience, but between killing assistant in favor of Gemini which can't do something as simple as telling me the weather without hallucinating and the sideloading lockdown shenanigans might as well switch over to Apple fully.

Don't be dramatic. Gemini is fine. I have the Google voice setup all throughout my house and haven't had any issues major enough that would want me to keep the original assistant.

Gemini has no idea what to do when I tell it to 'Navigate home'. Or 'Next song'.

It's objectively worse at every basic command.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#23

Post by selicos »

novia wrote: post #2

google assistant has been failing at more and more extremely simple tasks the last few months. the writing was on the wall.

By design. It worked great, then they launched Gemini and moved features out of Assistant. At least Assistant can still follow basic directions like a voice command to navigate home. Gemini can't.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#24

Post by Magicrafter13 »

Dayshine wrote: post #19
Magicrafter13 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do want to setup home assistant at some point, but my main usecase for a smartphone assistant is what I mentioned. Things like setting reminders/todo list items, creating calendar events - even sending quick messages to contacts. Basically, things I can already do on my phone, but can do quicker through natural language.

I just have an always on VPN so can tunnel back to my home assistant server; which can handle todos/reminders/calendar events. Quick messages to contacts I haven't considered.

I already use a VPN (Proton) so I can't VPN back to my home (i.e. Tailscale). A very unfortunate limitation of Android.

RethinkDNS has the potential to solve all my problems since it can do per-app proxies, however I've found that it doesn't work well with Proton (or possibly Wireguard as a whole) with frequent proxy disconnects, making it a very painful experience. Which is a shame because in some cases I value DNS filtering more than VPN.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#25

Post by pzlarsson »

Dayshine wrote: post #19
Magicrafter13 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do want to setup home assistant at some point, but my main usecase for a smartphone assistant is what I mentioned. Things like setting reminders/todo list items, creating calendar events - even sending quick messages to contacts. Basically, things I can already do on my phone, but can do quicker through natural language.

I just have an always on VPN so can tunnel back to my home assistant server; which can handle todos/reminders/calendar events. Quick messages to contacts I haven't considered.

Last time I tried, Android Auto refused to connect with an error message stating it will not start if VPN is active on the phone.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#26

Post by yndoendo »

sehw wrote: post #5

I'm switching to Ubuntu Touch btw.

I got a FLX1S from FuriLabs. [0]

It currently is my backup and Bluetooth music / audio player. Actually use it more than the Fairphone used for calling. Once some more of the bugs and user experience have been polished, it will be my primary to completely ditch Android.

Turns out I like it better with having two devices while travel. One handles music and GPS navigation. While the phone is used as a phone.

Only two things I like better with the Fairphone are: 1) Ability to remove the battery. 2) Ability to swap the SIM without needing tools.

The only future I see beneficial to me and others is a de-Googled one. Apple is too much of prison cell for me to find it acceptable as an alternative.

[0] https://furilabs.com/

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#27

Post by threecheese »

advisedwang wrote: post #12
Magicrafter13 wrote: post #8

Google Assistant is going away, to be replaced by - checks notes - Google Assistant by a different name. k Tangentially related, does anyone know any FOSS (local preferred, but self hosted if required for performance) assistant apps? After switching to GrapheneOS I do miss Bixby (say what you want about it, but creating reminders/alarms by merely holding down a button and using natural speech was quite handy).

Home Assistant [1] can be a voice assistant (both on phone and on dedicated devices). It's FOSS and can be fully local [2]. It's really gear towards home automation though, so its suitability depends on what you want to do with an assistant [1] https://www.home-assistant.io/ [2] Although frankly to have a fast-enough and good-enough LLM you might need to use a service

Nobody wants to say “Hey Nabu” though ;) Including me (and I bought one of the things)

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#28

Post by neaden »

This is terrible. I tried the Gemini assistant for awhile and it was a much worse experience. Just making my phone to pump up some internal stat. No way to even give feedback, just we are doing this and we don't care what you think. Google is just losing any value as a company to the consumer.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#29

Post by lawsthro0532 »

Tactical45 wrote: post #7
jessfyi wrote: post #4

Always stuck to the flagship google models as my primary driver (starting with the G1 in college) for the pure google experience, but between killing assistant in favor of Gemini which can't do something as simple as telling me the weather without hallucinating and the sideloading lockdown shenanigans might as well switch over to Apple fully.

Don't be dramatic. Gemini is fine. I have the Google voice setup all throughout my house and haven't had any issues major enough that would want me to keep the original assistant.

Besides mispronouncing words most days, it literally said it was snowing and Florida-hot in one sentence this week. It's the first time it's been that wrong though.

Re: Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices

#30

Post by novia »

selicos wrote: post #23
novia wrote: post #2

google assistant has been failing at more and more extremely simple tasks the last few months. the writing was on the wall.

By design. It worked great, then they launched Gemini and moved features out of Assistant. At least Assistant can still follow basic directions like a voice command to navigate home. Gemini can't.

My experience the last few months has been that the "take me to" command no longer worked! "Take me home" for example would no longer work. "Take me to in , " stopped working. I relied on that to navigate me to places when I'd already started driving, so it was pretty frustrating when it suddenly stopped.
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