Google finally brought a Gemini mobile app to Android on Thursday, and users can choose to replace Google Assistant with Gemini if they prefer. This means that actions like holding the power button or saying “Hey Google” will invoke Gemini, not Assistant. Gemini is not as good at voice assistant-related functions, but it is better at tasks that benefit from artificial intelligence.
However, it seems that Android users can't have the best of both worlds, as Android Authority pointed out. Many originally thought that Android users would have the option to use Assistant as a voice assistant and Gemini as an AI chatbot app. But if you want to use the Gemini app, the setup process will require you to replace Assistant with Gemini. The Assistant app icon will also change to Gemini, making it look like you have the same app twice.
Users have the option to revert their assistant preference from Gemini to Assistant after the fact. However, this is still not a solution, because reverting Gemini to Assistant will cause the Gemini app to restart completely. To use it, the user needs to configure the Gemini application again – and thus replace Assistant with Gemini.
At least for now, this means it's effectively impossible to use the Gemini app and Google Assistant simultaneously. There seems to be no logical reason for this, other than the fact that Google probably wants to move Assistant users over to Gemini. Users with Google Assistant can still use Gemini on the web, so they're simply missing out on the convenience of having Gemini in an app.
For the record, Google recently announced that it was removing 17 features from Google Assistant. Separately, the company reportedly laid off hundreds of employees who worked on Assistant. These two factors, plus the inability to use Gemini and Assistant together, could indicate that Assistant may be on the way out.
This limitation may force some users to use Assistant in the Gemini mobile app. At launch, Gemini is limited to the assistant features it can support. For example, Gemini can start timers or make calls, but it can't set reminders or create Google Calendar events.
It is possible that this is an unintended behavior of the Gemini app and could be changed in an update. Google said Assistant isn't going anywhere, at least for now. However, if this behavior is intentional, it would definitely push some users away from Assistant and toward Gemini.
