Google may soon phase out Assistant, making Gemini the only option

Google is removing the option to switch back to its legacy voice assistant as it fully embraces Gemini, its next-generation AI-powered assistant.

Google is phasing out Assistant as Gemini becomes the company’s primary AI experience. (Express Photo)

Google is preparing to remove Google Assistant, the voice-enabled digital assistant, in favour of AI-powered Gemini. For more than a year, Google allowed users who preferred the older virtual assistant via a simple toggle.

But now, those days are numbered as Google is actively working on removing the “Digital assistants from Google” option from the Assistant and Gemini settings page. According to a new report by Android Authority, the latest version of Gemini for Android has a new line of code which confirms users will soon lose the option to switch from Gemini to Google Assistant in the near future.

In recent months, the tech giant has brought several features that were once exclusive to Assistant over to Gemini. This means the AI-powered assistant can do everything Google Assistant was capable of and more.

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The report suggests that Google is working on a new processing animation for Gemini when it is working on your queries. Also, when you send a long message to Gemini, the full text is displayed in the chat user interface. But in the coming days, Google may add buttons that let users expand or collapse their long queries, which is pretty similar to the button on the web version of Gemini. We may also see a “Jump to bottom” button, which, as the name suggests, takes you to the bottom of the conversation.

Google is also planning to give Gemini a visual makeover with a new Instagram-like scrollable feed of prompts, a welcome message and shortcuts to tools like Create Image and Deep Research.