Gemini Live is impressive. It makes AI personable, allowing me to have a natural, free-flowing conversation with my voice assistant from my favorite phone. It’s a great way to brainstorm, and it’s the most I’ve used a voice assistant in years. However, it isn’t perfect, and Google is adding features to make it a proper replacement for Google Assistant.
In the meantime, Google Assistant is the best choice for several valuable functions in your daily life. Depending on your smartphone use, you might find Google Assistant more useful. Here are five things Google Assistant does that Gemini Live doesn’t do.
5 Keeping the trains running on time
It’s still better for my calendar
Gemini Live helps me organize my day and suggests the best ways to manage my time. However, it can’t add items to my Google Calendar or access my schedule like Google Assistant can. I find Gemini Live limiting because my voice assistant is crucial for keeping my daily appointments. Gemini Live is great at suggesting ways to alleviate a toothache, but I turn to Google Assistant when it’s time to make a dentist appointment.
That isn’t Gemini Live’s only limitation regarding scheduling. It can’t access my Google Tasks or set reminders for me. Google Assistant is my go-to for smaller, transactional tasks like setting a timer for baking. While Gemini Live helps brainstorm dinner ideas, Google Assistant is more helpful when I’m following recipes.
4 Keeping in touch
Calls and texts are better with Google Assistant
I often use my phone in the car or hands-free, and Google Assistant is more versatile. Gemini Live can’t call my contacts, which limits its functions when I’m on the road. It also isn’t the best choice when texting hands-free. Bantering back and forth in a group chat with my phone on my desk isn’t an option.
Additionally, Gemini Live can’t access my Gmail account like Google Assistant can, so it can’t draft and send emails with voice commands. Gemini Live isn’t useless. It still helps me work through drafts and hone my ideas. However, Google Assistant is the tool I rely on to send emails. When I use the voice assistant to alert me to emails and read them back, Google Assistant still holds the upper hand. That isn’t to say Google isn’t adding more functionality to Gemini Live. It just isn’t there yet.
3 Knowing where I’m going
Maps is still best with Google Assistant
If you’re like me, you love using Google Maps in your car for navigation. No matter how new a vehicle’s GPS is, I always rely on Google Maps on my smartphone in a cupholder. Old habits die hard. However, I can’t enter destinations and have Gemini Live pull up a route. These are items Google Assistant can still handle. Gemini Live opens Google Maps on my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, but it doesn’t have the full functionality I’m used to from my voice assistant.
It’s a theme I keep returning to, but Gemini Live is fantastic for suggesting where I should go or what restaurant is excellent for lunch. Still, it shows weaknesses when it’s time to pull up an establishment, call for a reservation, and get directions. Google Assistant is also better for complex web searches and is ideal for narrowing down new eateries.
2 Keeping your cool
You can’t control your smart home
I admit to not having much of a smart home, but it would be helpful if Gemini Live could access my Google Nest. I would love to pair Gemini Live’s conversational style with the practical tasks of setting temperatures or controlling different zones. I love to tweak my heating schedules, ensuring my home is the exact temperature I want when I get home. I look forward to when I can ask Gemini Live about the most efficient heating strategies and then have them implemented.
Google Assistant can also control your smart lighting, helping you manage lighting schedules and turn rooms on and off at home. I’m sure these features will come to Gemini Live in the future. Still, if you control your outlets, lights, and HVAC over Wi-Fi, Google Assistant is an important tool.
1 The beat goes on
Not yet, but it’s coming
Even though Gemini Live can suggest new artists for you to listen to, it can’t start playlists on Spotify or YouTube Music. Unlike the other limitations I mentioned, Google said it expects YouTube Music integration into Gemini Live later in 2024. The company plans to enhance the current feature set of Google Assistant, allowing you to create new playlists or have Gemini Live create a radio station of your favorite artists.
It’s a hint of what’s to come, and I like the direction Gemini Live is taking. If it wants to replace Google Assistant, it can’t be a fancier way of doing the same things. It must offer a distinct experience with new capabilities.
Better than I thought
I highlight Gemini Live’s limitations not as a hater but as a fan. It’s been the best AI experience I’ve had on a smartphone, and I want to see its capabilities increased. I would rather have a full, run-on conversation about several topics or tasks I need to do rather than parse each out to Google Assistant. Gemini Live is a true assistant, and I can double-check my work or alter my tone in an email. I’d like to put that to full use across several apps.
If you haven’t tried it yet and have a compatible device, fire up Gemini Live. You’ll like it, but realize Google Assistant isn’t going anywhere just yet for several crucial tasks that help you get through your day. Read up on the best tips to get the most from Google Assistant.
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