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We had seen plenty of evidence that Google was working to integrate its Bard AI chatbot into Google Assistant over the past several months, but now, that day has come — except the name isn’tAssistant with Bardas originally thought, it’s simplyGemini. Starting today, many users can install the Gemini app for Android, and the next time theGoogle Assistant shortcutis triggered, Gemini will pop up and ask if it should replace the old virtual assistant. But as Google warns when you first launch Gemini, it is clearly an “experimental AI assistant on your phone,” emphasis onexperimental.
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Tucked away neatly at the bottom of a support page for the Gemini mobile app,Google highlights a few featuresfrom Assistant that aren’t currently functional in Gemini — things that might be deal breakers if you’re considering the switch. Podcasts, radio stations, and music services aren’t yet compatible, nor are Google Assistant Routines. Interpreter mode is also broken, but perhaps the most glaring omission is the lack of an ability to set reminders or create tasks.
When you have Gemini turned on, some features and services you used in Google Assistant aren’t supported. This includes:
But these aren’t the only quirks you should know about before going all-in with Gemini. As9to5Google reports, Google Home device controls work through Gemini, but not when typing the request — only when speaking. Which is particularly frustrating since Gemini has a limitation when triggered via Android’s digital assistant voice shortcut: it processes your verbal command and shows the text on the screen, but you have to tap a send button to make the assistant respond to the request.Mishaal Rahman noted, however, that triggering Gemini via the Hey Google hotword bypasses this limitation, accepting verbal input without requiring you to tap the send button.
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In ourhands-on with Google Gemini, Android Police Gadgets Editor Taylor Kerns noted that interactions initiated via the hotword take an oddly long time to process. He also noted that Gemini has a tendency to get confused with certain queries, like asking how much battery is left without specifying “on this phone,” which is likely a result of its broadened capabilities in comparison to Google Assistant’s.
Thankfully, most of these problems appear to be early bugs and not intentional omissions, but they’re definitely worth considering before making the switch. After all, you don’thaveto set Gemini as your Assistant to use it — you can simply openGemini on the weband access all its features without a shortcut.
UPDATE: 2025-06-25 10:09 EST BY DALLAS THOMAS
Correction
A previous version of this article erroneously reported that it was possible to use the Gemini app without setting it as your digital assistant.As discovered by Android Authority, that is not the case — simply agreeing to the app’s terms on first-run causes it to override Google Assistant. You can still, however,access Gemini independently on the web.
