Summary
- Google's new Gemini digital assistant on Android is making progress towards adding features missing from Google Assistant.
- Gemini can now set reminders through the Google Assistant extension, although availability is limited initially, as the feature is still in the process of rolling out to all users.
- While Gemini still lacks key functionalities like podcast playback and Routines, improvements are in the works.
For Android users, there's a new digital assistant in town, and like most things Google has introduced in the past few months, it has Gemini branding so you'll know it runs on the powerful multimodal AI of the same name. The only problem is, when you change your default Assistant to Gemini, you lose some key functionality from the old Google Assistant, even though the former is still included as an extension. Now, at least one of these problems is being solved.
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Earlier today, a Reddit user noticed that Gemini can finally set reminders for them, a feature that was missing since the launch of the Android app (via Mishal Rehman, We can now confirm that we're seeing this same behavior on some accounts and phones, though not others, so it looks like this is in the early stages of a phased rollout.
Asking Gemini to set a reminder for something actually calls the Google Assistant extension, which then adds the reminder through Google Tasks. After setting the reminder, you will see a open task button on the Gemini overlay, which takes you to an activity in the Google app that lets you manage pending tasks. If you have the Google Tasks app installed, notification of your reminder will come through that app – otherwise, it will be posted by the Google Calendar app at the scheduled time.
With support for Reminders, Gemini has taken a big step toward becoming a viable Google Assistant replacement on Android, but there's still a lot of work to be done. The ability to play podcasts, daily news briefings and music from the streaming service is still absent, as is Google Assistant's interpreter mode for on-the-fly translation. Perhaps the biggest omission currently is the Gemini's inability to handle Google Assistant routines, hindering functionality like turning on lights when the alarm goes off in the morning. But the good thing is that Gemini product lead Jack Krawczyk has talked about regular expansions for the chatbot are among the team's top priorities,
