Google’sBard rebrandwas in the pipeline for a while, and today, the companyfinally renamedits AI chatbot to Gemini, even giving it the ability to replace Google Assistant. However, you need to install the Gemini app for that to work, and that’s geo-limited for now. Google won’t keep people waiting for long, and we have confirmation that the Gemini app will soon be available broadly, but there are caveats.
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Google Gemini is here, with a whole new approach to multimodal AI
Google’s launch of the Gemini chatbot is a watershed moment in the company’s AI tech journey, but comes alongside a heap of related announcements, including the availability of theGemini Advancedmodel through Google One. Perhaps the company’s most important decision, however, is to replace Assistant with Gemini. To make it work, Google Bard product lead Jack Krawczyk explained that you need to update the Google app on your phone, install the new Google Gemini app, and summon your digital assistant with the gesture shortcut or hotword, then opt into the Gemini experience when prompted.
Disappointingly, this transition for Assistant to the new LLM, like the Gemini app itself, is only available in the US right now, althoughGemini is broadly available on the web. Even when Android Police staff tried sideloading the Gemini APK on devices in Europe and India, the app refused to work, citing geo-restrictions. Coming to the rescue with critical information again, Krawczyk posted on X that more features are in the pipeline, and support for Asia-Pacific, Latin America, North America, and Africa is coming next week —Monday, to be precise.
While that’s an exciting list of several large markets, Krawczyk doesn’t mention the EU or UK. To recall, Bard wasoff to a delayed startin the EU, launching only in July even though most other regions obtained access in March 2023. The Irish Data Protection Commission was forced todelay the launchdue to insufficient documentation detailing Bard’s impact on data protection for users in the EU. With the transition to Gemini, it appears people in the EU might have to wait a while before the Gemini-powered assistant goes live. That still doesn’t explain why the UK isn’t on the list for expanded availability, because last year, users there could access Bard in March like everyone else, while EU users waited.
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In the interim, everyone can tryGemini on the web, because even the Bard website now redirects to Gemini. Thankfully, your valuable conversation history with Bard is carried over, so you don’t lose any info you may have left unutilized. Moreover, Assistant running on Gemini still feels like a rough draft, andnot a drop-in replacement. At the time of writing, you still need to hitSendon every voice command, and there areseveral other limitations, but it unlocks exciting potential through integration with other Google apps.
