Google Gemini came out at a time when all of us had grown very used to incorporating Google Assistant into our daily lives. Initially, besides being a ChatGPT clone, it was hard to see exactly what Gemini (then still called Bard) could do any better than Google Assistant—besides providing more conversational responses.
Google told us that they wouldn’t be in a rush to put Google Assistant to bed, but with the addition of extensions for Gemini—and a new batch being introduced—it seems that the extinction of Google’s first virtual assistant might be closer than we might have initially thought.
WhatsApp, Spotify, And Google Messages Extensions Are Coming To Google Gemini Pretty Soon
When ChatGPT became a thing, the age of AI was awoken in full. Every major tech player jumped to find their own takes on AI and Google decided its major move was to develop Google Gemini, its own AI chatbot. Initially, despite being a Google product, Gemini had very little interaction with the rest of the Google ecosystem. However, through the power of Extensions for Gemini, Google has been equipping it with some additional features.
Gemini still can’t do everything that Google Assistant can do though. However, the gap between the two is closing quite rapidly. According to an APK teardown done by Android Authority, we’ve been able to see that Gemini is about to add some new extensions to the mix; quite notably, two of which are major applications that exist outside of Google’s ecosystem.
Google is going to be adding an extension for WhatsApp to Gemini, which will make it possible to get it to send WhatsApp messages and make WhatsApp calls on your behalf. A Google Messages extension is also coming, letting you send messages using Gemini. It will also make it possible to play music through Spotify straight from Gemini, which is a feature I was annoyed to find out wasn’t present just a few days ago.
These New Extensions All Bring Google Gemini A Few Steps Closer To Google Assistant
Playing music from Spotify and sending messages from Google Messages or WhatsApp are things that Google Assistant was able to do for you, but Gemini wasn’t. It’s evident that is going to change soon.
I personally find it hard to switch full-time to Gemini because of these things that it simply can’t do yet. However, it seems that if we give it several more months, the platform might soon be able to go toe-to-toe with Assistant. If that’s the case, there’d be little reason for Assistant to even exist anymore.
There’s A Bit Of Overlap Between Gemini And Assistant But Each Has Its Strengths
But don’t get me wrong. I’d hardly say that Google Gemini is bad because it doesn’t link with the rest of Android as well. Its strength right now is in being powered by multimodal AI, which makes it a lot more useful in conversation. It is also capable of understanding and returning content in more than just plain text form.
Meanwhile, Google Assistant is awesome because of how it ties in pretty snugly with the rest of the Android operating system. You can tell it to open essentially any app on your phone and it’ll do that without complaint.
Gemini is reaching a point of blending the best of both worlds and once that day comes, it’ll be time for Assistant to be put to bed.
