{"slug": "google-assistant", "name": "Google Assistant", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 1, "score": 2.804, "rising": 2.35, "first": "2026-01-06", "latest": "2026-10-03", "why": "I use Google Assistant for things like \"add a reminder\", \"set an alarm\"", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use Google Assistant for things like \"add a reminder\", \"set an alarm\"", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://assistant.google.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Google Assistant"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 796822321, "item_id": 49801395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801395", "by": "disgruntledphd2", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Yeah I used the old Assistant regularly", "excerpt": "> Gemini is similarly a step back. Google Assistant could hear me speak up and ask it to like or skip a song being played, driving or otherwise. It would quickly beep at me, pause the music/etc, accept input, process, then finish and resume the music (or skip to next track if asked). Yeah I used the old Assistant regularly, but after the Gemini update it started refusing to set a timer for me, so I churned.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?"}, {"id": 789350128, "item_id": 49334383, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334383", "by": "netsharc", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events", "excerpt": "I got the email that they're burying Assistant in September... I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events, I swipe up on the home screen to launch the app, and talk. For calendar, speech (\"add calendar event dentist appointment on September 22 at 4pm\") is even much more convenient than scrolling to the right month/date, using the UI to pick the time. I'm currently vibe-coding a replacement app ", "context": "", "use_case": "voice alarms and calendar events", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI"}, {"id": 786949841, "item_id": 49184365, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184365", "by": "alienbaby", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gemini cannot do various things I used to do with assistant", "excerpt": "Hmm. Gemini cannot do various things I used to do with assistant, especially interacting across some apps, or jsut behaving as it used to , and now sometimes ends up in a situation where I have two audio sources playing one over the other with no way to solve it (if you have morning routines that play the news, and it pops up while listening to teh radio, previously I could say 'stop the news' and the radio would con", "context": "", "use_case": "voice assistant and routines", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices"}, {"id": 774707057, "item_id": 48419191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48419191", "by": "opwieurposiu", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it used to use google assistant to process voice commands and it was pretty fast", "excerpt": "Yes. When I plug my phone into the car it used to use google assistant to process voice commands and it was pretty fast. Now for some reason it has switched to Gemini and it takes twice as long to play a song or send a text. Sometimes Gemini forgets it even has the ability to play songs. Gemini is better at answering random questions that the kids ask though.", "context": "", "use_case": "car voice commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers"}, {"id": 744235568, "item_id": 46514723, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514723", "by": "netsharc", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Google Assistant for things like \"add a reminder\", \"set an alarm\"", "excerpt": "Seems like it needs higher level stuff, although that's a bit too sci-fi. Captain Picard can just ask \"Computer, where is Commander Riker?\" and the computer answers him, he doesn't need to say \"Computer, launch people finder app\" and \"Computer, input 'Commander Riker' in the people finder app\"... I use Google Assistant for things like \"add a reminder\", \"set an alarm\", which is natural language processing but doesn't ", "context": "", "use_case": "reminders and alarms", "switched_from": "", "story": "System: Control your Mac from anywhere using natural language"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799128704, "item_id": 49945544, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49945544", "by": "abustamam", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google Assistant with Gemini is almost close to useless.", "excerpt": "Android user here. Google Assistant with Gemini is almost close to useless. Before Google assistant had gemini i used to be able to do simple things like \"remind me to do x in y minutes\" or \"turn lights off\" or \"remind me that the apt gate code is 1234\" Now most of that either is \"i cant do that\" or \"sure, playing Ellie Gouldings Lights at 200%\" (which admittedly was funny in hindsight, had it not woken my infant dau", "context": "Android user", "use_case": "reminders and smart home commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Pass Designer"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["reminders and smart home commands", "voice assistant", "voice alarms and calendar events", "voice assistant and routines", "car voice commands", "reminders and alarms"], "compared": [{"slug": "gemini", "name": "Gemini", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49937276", "title": "Apple Pass Designer", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49786609", "title": "Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331220", "title": "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184041", "title": "Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48417490", "title": "Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46511298", "title": "System: Control your Mac from anywhere using natural language", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 799128704, "item_id": 49945544, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49945544", "by": "abustamam", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google Assistant with Gemini is almost close to useless.", "excerpt": "Android user here. Google Assistant with Gemini is almost close to useless. Before Google assistant had gemini i used to be able to do simple things like \"remind me to do x in y minutes\" or \"turn lights off\" or \"remind me that the apt gate code is 1234\" Now most of that either is \"i cant do that\" or \"sure, playing Ellie Gouldings Lights at 200%\" (which admittedly was funny in hindsight, had it not woken my infant dau", "context": "Android user", "use_case": "reminders and smart home commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Pass Designer"}, {"id": 796822321, "item_id": 49801395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801395", "by": "disgruntledphd2", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Yeah I used the old Assistant regularly", "excerpt": "> Gemini is similarly a step back. Google Assistant could hear me speak up and ask it to like or skip a song being played, driving or otherwise. It would quickly beep at me, pause the music/etc, accept input, process, then finish and resume the music (or skip to next track if asked). Yeah I used the old Assistant regularly, but after the Gemini update it started refusing to set a timer for me, so I churned.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?"}, {"id": 789350128, "item_id": 49334383, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334383", "by": "netsharc", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events", "excerpt": "I got the email that they're burying Assistant in September... I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events, I swipe up on the home screen to launch the app, and talk. For calendar, speech (\"add calendar event dentist appointment on September 22 at 4pm\") is even much more convenient than scrolling to the right month/date, using the UI to pick the time. I'm currently vibe-coding a replacement app ", "context": "", "use_case": "voice alarms and calendar events", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI"}, {"id": 786949841, "item_id": 49184365, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184365", "by": "alienbaby", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gemini cannot do various things I used to do with assistant", "excerpt": "Hmm. Gemini cannot do various things I used to do with assistant, especially interacting across some apps, or jsut behaving as it used to , and now sometimes ends up in a situation where I have two audio sources playing one over the other with no way to solve it (if you have morning routines that play the news, and it pops up while listening to teh radio, previously I could say 'stop the news' and the radio would con", "context": "", "use_case": "voice assistant and routines", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices"}, {"id": 774707057, "item_id": 48419191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48419191", "by": "opwieurposiu", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it used to use google assistant to process voice commands and it was pretty fast", "excerpt": "Yes. When I plug my phone into the car it used to use google assistant to process voice commands and it was pretty fast. Now for some reason it has switched to Gemini and it takes twice as long to play a song or send a text. Sometimes Gemini forgets it even has the ability to play songs. Gemini is better at answering random questions that the kids ask though.", "context": "", "use_case": "car voice commands", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers"}, {"id": 744235568, "item_id": 46514723, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514723", "by": "netsharc", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Google Assistant for things like \"add a reminder\", \"set an alarm\"", "excerpt": "Seems like it needs higher level stuff, although that's a bit too sci-fi. Captain Picard can just ask \"Computer, where is Commander Riker?\" and the computer answers him, he doesn't need to say \"Computer, launch people finder app\" and \"Computer, input 'Commander Riker' in the people finder app\"... I use Google Assistant for things like \"add a reminder\", \"set an alarm\", which is natural language processing but doesn't ", "context": "", "use_case": "reminders and alarms", "switched_from": "", "story": "System: Control your Mac from anywhere using natural language"}]}