Gemini is taking over some more Google Assistant tasks

3 weeks ago 17

(Image credit: Google)

Google continues to replace Google Assistant features using its Gemini AI models and branding, as discovered in as-yet unreleased code by Android Authority. The tech giant's infusion of Gemini is rolling throughout its product line.

Upcoming Gemini Extensions will take over Google Assistant integrations with apps including Google Messages, Spotify, and WhatsApp. These Gemini extensions are designed to take over for those Google Assistant integrations while promising to personalize the interaction beyond the capacity of the older AI assistant.

Right now, if you ask your Android device or Google app to play a song on Spotify or send a message via WhatsApp, Google Assistant completes the task. The code in the beta version of the Google app lays out how Gemini will pick up that role through Extensions running independently from Google Assistant.

It's not just a cosmetic shift. The Spotify Extension works like the YouTube Music Gemini Extension, playing a song upon request and showing an image of the song that you can tap to open Spotify. The Gemini Extensions also allow you to use much more casual language than Google Assistant when asking Google to play music on Spotify or call someone with WhatsApp. They also speed up the process by eliminating some of the follow-up clarifications required by Google Assistant.

The AI will adapt to your preferences, remembering what apps you favor for carrying out tasks. So, if you always use WhatsApp to call certain people and your phone to call others, you'll be able to ask the AI to call one of them without specifying which app to use, and it will automatically pick the right one. The same goes for asking Gemini to play a song on YouTube Music or Spotify. You can also manually adjust which apps are used for which tasks.

Extension Stars

The Gemini Extensions being in beta means they can't do everything you might want as of yet. Gemini can't read or show old messages when asked yet, though that may be included when the final version of the update rolls out. When it does arrive, you might not find the update groundbreaking, but if you pay attention, you'll likely notice how much better Google's voice AI is at understanding what you want it to do and how it is completing your requests faster than you remember.

Gemini Extensions are key to Google's efforts to encourage people to use Gemini by spreading the AI everywhere. Gemini is becoming the foundation for both Google products and how they link to third-party apps and services. Google Assistant as both a brand and a product is being superseded, though marketing is definitely as much a part of that shift as actual technical upgrades.

Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He's since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he's continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.

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