Gemini is everywhere now, but Android Auto is the first place I've really been sold on it

Over the past few months, especially, Gemini has taken over everything Google, with Assistant having largely vanished. Yet, in most cases, the biggest upgrade I’ve felt from Gemini is just the lack of Assistant being so awful. But there is one big exception, and that’s with Gemini on Android Auto.

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Google’s pitch with Gemini has, to me, always felt a little ambitious. The thought of having full-fledged conversations with my smartphone, speakers, earbuds, and other devices just seems… weird. At least for me, I’m usually using voice commands on these devices to handle a task in the quickest way possible, often just for things like smart home controls or quick questions I need a one-sentence answer for.

Often when Google shows examples of how it expects people to use Gemini, I truly just can’t believe anyone is typing out 50-word prompts like they’re talking to another person.

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But the recent rollout of Gemini for Android Auto is what’s managed to change my tune a fair bit.

Gemini on Android Auto is not something I ever expected to want because, frankly, Assistant seemed like enough. If I’m looking to navigate to a location, I don’t need a ton of context, I just need my voice assistant to do the thing I’ve asked of it. And, really, I think I was right about that. Assistant was enough for that, at least until it started to crumble and become something about as useful as a dumpster fire in your passenger seat. Gemini at the very least cleans up the problems Assistant was having, though not without introducing its own such as continuing to ask questions of you or read out its replies long after you’ve used the touchscreen to complete the action.

Where Gemini managed to stand out on Android Auto for me was in its conversational manner, and it’s ability to find information quickly.

Much like “shower thoughts,” I often find myself brainstorming ideas while driving alone. But, for safety’s sake, I usually can’t gather any new information behind the wheel. Gemini, and especially Gemini Live, has been brilliant for this. Lately I’ve found myself having full conversations with Gemini about things I want to buy, like a drone, or details about rules in a disc golf event I’m looking to run. Instead of thinking about these questions in my head and either quickly looking up information at a stoplight or, just as likely, inevitably forgetting to look them up by the time I reach my destination, I can just talk it through with Gemini.

I still have an inherent distrust of anything AI has to say, but when I’m using Live as a sounding board for topics I already have some knowledge in, or just gathering some very basic details around an idea, Gemini turns into a great way to stay productive behind the wheel without compromising safety at all.

Truly, this is the first time I’ve felt Gemini’s voice functions are actually useful.

Matters flip entirely when it comes to another recent Gemini rollout, though. I’ve just started testing out the TCL QM9K TV at home, and Gemini on Google TV just feels utterly useless to me. Voice assistants on a TV are super useful for looking up content without pecking your way through an on-screen keyboard with the remote, but the long-winded replies of Gemini just make it an absolute drag on the TV. Ironically, it’s exactly the problem I thought I’d run into in the car. There are some obvious use cases for Gemini on the TV, such as finding content, but I’m again back to not being able to believe that people are holding up their remote and trying to have a full conversation with their TV just to find something to watch.

What do you think? Have you found Gemini useful in day-to-day life outside of the chatbot that started it all?

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