Last week, Google rebranded its Bard AI bot as Gemini (matching the name of the model it runs on), and pushed out an Android app in the US; and while the new app has brought a few frustrations with it, Google is now busy trying to fix the major ones.
You can, if you want, use Google Gemini as a replacement for Google Assistant on your Android phone – and Google has made this possible even though Gemini lacks a lot of the basic digital assistant features that users have come to rely on.
One problem has now been fixed: originally, when chatting to Gemini using your voice, you had to manually tap on the ‘send’ arrow to submit your command or question – when you’re trying to keep up a conversation with your phone, that really slows everything down.
As per 9to5Google, that’s no longer the case, and Google Gemini will now realize that you’ve stopped talking (and respond accordingly) in the same way that Google Assistant always has. It makes the app a lot more intuitive to use.
Updates on the way
Ok – Gemini day 2 recap: things people like, things we gotta fix. Keep your feedback coming. We’re reading it all.THINGS PEOPLE LIKE (♥️♥️♥️)- Writing style- Creativity for helping you find the right words/ideas- Speed of responses- Not hitting usage caps- Online…February 10, 2024
What’s more, Google Gemini team member Jack Krawczyk has posted a list of features that engineers are currently working on – including some pretty basic functionality, including the ability to interact with your Google Calendar and reminders.
A coding interpreter is apparently also on the roadmap, which means Gemini would not just be able to produce programming code, but also to emulate how it would run – all within the same app. Additionally, the Google Gemini team is working to remove some of the “preachy guardrails” that the AI bot currently has.
The “top priority” is apparently refusals, which means Gemini declines to complete a task or answer a question. We’ve seen Reddit posts that suggest the AI bot will sometimes apologetically report that it can’t help with a particular prompt – something that’s clearly on Google’s radar in terms of rolling fixes out.
Krawczyk says the Android app is coming to more countries in the coming days and weeks, and will be available in Europe “ASAP” – and he’s also encouraging users to keep the feedback to the Google team coming.