For more than a year, the fate of Google Assistant has been uncertain. The software was once a crown gem for Google, serving as the foundation for both the company's mobile and smart home strategy. Half a decade ago, Google was giving out Home Mini speakers to expand its ecosystem.
On Tuesday, however, ahead of next week's Made by Google 2024 event, the firm stated that Assistant will remain — at least on the Home/Nest side.
Assistant and Alexa received a good boost from the pandemic, which caused the world to spend more time at home. However, in recent years, Google and Alexa appear to have slowed down.
It is hyperbole to claim, as many have, that the smart home is dead. Many Americans own smart home devices; take a quick scan of your neighborhood and count how many doorbell cameras you can find. However, the smart home promise was never limited to one or two linked gadgets per home. It was a fully automated, networked home ecosystem.
There are plenty of reasons why the whole of the world isn’t living in fully automated smart homes. For one thing, smart devices tend to be far more expensive than their dumb counterparts. For another, the landscape has been fractured for most of its existence as device companies have pushed their own apps and ecosystems. Bad experiences like that can permanently sour a consumer who was initially hooked in by the hype cycle.
The assistants at the heart of these plays have had their own struggles. Samsung’s Bixby and Microsoft’s Cortana went away entirely. Even Apple seemed to stop talking to Siri. The proliferation of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT suddenly made the last generation of smart assistants seem antiquated.
Earlier this year, Google allowed test users to make its GenAI platform Gemini the default assistant on their Pixel devices. While Gemini and its apparent predilection for putting glue on pizza weren't ready to completely replace Assistant, its predecessor's days appeared to be numbered.
With more Pixel smartphones on the horizon, Assistant's days on Android may be numbered. For the time being, it still appears on the home page. Along with the unveiling of a new Learning Thermostat and streaming set-top box, Google said that Assistant will remain in its Home ecosystem, powered by Gemini devices.
Other evident uses for Gemini include the capacity to summarize material, which is central to Google's attempt to incorporate generative AI into its search products. Whether Google sticks with Google Assistant or adopts the name Gemini across the board is ultimately a branding decision. Apple recently gave Siri an AI-powered facelift, courtesy of its new Apple Assistant models. Google appears to be planning to do the same, at least in terms of smart homes.