Google continues to replace Google Assistant features using its Gemini AI models and branding, such as discovers in unreleased code from Android Authority. The tech giant’s infusion of Gemini is rolling through its product line.
Upcoming Gemini extensions will take over Google Assistant integrations with apps like Google Messages, Spotify, and WhatsApp. These Gemini extensions are designed to take over those Google Assistant integrations, while promising to personalize the interaction beyond the legacy AI assistant’s capabilities.
Now when you ask your Android device or Google app to play a song on Spotify or send a message via WhatsApp, Google Assistant will complete the task. The code in the beta version of the Google app explains how Gemini will take on that role through extensions that run independently of the Google Assistant.
It’s not just a cosmetic change. The Spotify extension works like the YouTube Music Gemini extension, playing a song on demand and displaying an image of the song that you can tap to open Spotify. The Gemini Extensions also let you use much more informal language than Google Assistant when asking Google to play music on Spotify or call someone on WhatsApp. They also speed up the process by eliminating some of the follow-up clarifications that Google Assistant requires.
The AI adapts to your preferences and remembers which apps you prefer to perform tasks. So if you always use WhatsApp to call certain people and your phone to call others, you can ask the AI to call any of them without specifying which app to use, and it will automatically choose 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.
Expansion Stars
Because the Gemini extensions are in beta, they can’t do everything you might want yet. Gemini can’t yet read or show old messages when requested, but that could be included when the final version of the update rolls out. When it arrives, you may not find the update groundbreaking, but if you pay close attention you’ll likely notice how much better Google’s voice AI understands what you want it to do and how it completes your requests faster than you remember. .
Gemini extensions are critical to Google’s efforts to encourage people to use Gemini by spreading its AI everywhere. Gemini will be the foundation for both Google products and the way they link to third-party apps and services. Google Assistant as a brand and product is becoming obsolete, although marketing is certainly as much a part of that shift as actual tech upgrades.