Unless users take action, Android will let Gemini access third-party apps : technology

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 days ago (13 children)

Wish there were better 3rd party mobile options. On pc I can install Linux on any laptop made in the last 15 years and it will work basically flawlessly. No such equivalent exists for smart phones

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

LineageOS

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

I swear, whenever I try to use it, it just makes me wish I could delete it. I ask the answer to a simple question and it gives me a whole essay on how this one aspect of what I said is more nuanced than one would imagine, and I'm left there waiting 5 minutes to get it to say anything of substance, but it doesn't when I explicitly tell it to "just give me the fucking answer", which I have to say every time for it to say anything useful.

It also doesn't work with timers or anything actually useful and I doubt it'll get any better with third party app access.

Google assistant was so much better, it even still works with its servers being down (for me at least) because it's a better assistant than whatever Gemini is supposed to be.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I'm not signed into a Google account on my phone, am I safe?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 days ago

I switched Gemini language to an unsupported language.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

My experience with Gemini:

Hey Google, set a timer for 5 minutes.

Gemini: I'm sorry, I don't understand.

WTF is the point of it then?

Imagine taking away the only useful feature of a voice assistant 💀

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My recent experience with my phone is I tell it to set a 5 minute timer and it sets one in the fucking Google search browser, and if I page away I lose the timer.

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[–] [email protected] -4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Remember when iPhone was the bad guy amongst these kids? But I guess as long as it has more options, surely it’s better!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What? Apple is the bad guy, Google is the bad guy. They are both bad guys!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I never said Apple was great, did I?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

You kinda did though. I am unsure what your comment is actually truing to convey. Users only have 2 options of mobile OSs that are average consumer ready.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I just removed gemini from my phone.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

me too and then it somehow popped up in messages which I had to "turn off" separately. removing AI from an Android phone is an illusion.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

https://grapheneos.org/

Make your next phone a Pixel and load GrapheneOS onto it. Problem solved.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Anyone know if this is happening outside the US and if it is whether it's happening inside the EU?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago

Yeah, this seems like an easy lawsuit in the EU tbh

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[+] [email protected] -8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I mean, Google Assistant is getting replaced with Gemini and so far that was the biggest pain point of mine: No I don't want to turn on Gemini activity history, yes I still want to be able to make calls with it...

This is nicer, imo. You can just not have Gemini app to not let this happen. 72 hour retention is pretty standard, if not better than most of free LLM providers. I hate Google with passion and I try to avoid them as much as possible but Gemini is just so darn easy to use. I also use Kagi and their assistant does most of the heavy lifting & privacy concerning.

edit: Clearly there are some misunderstandings? They have been basically putting pretty much essential features behind the wall of opting in for App history for no reason. I compromise and use them for trivial stuff.

You can always delete Gemini app or turn of integrations manually(sucks that its opt out and not opt in). This is better since it's giving privacy aware who wish to disable history but still want to use integrations, a choice.

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