Unavailable in France for several weeks, the application to use Gemini on your Android phone has been available since June 5 on the Play Store. The chatbot can be configured as a replacement for Google Assistant.
We have known for several weeks: Google intends to replace Google Assistant with Gemini. The American company didn’t say it as openly during its annual I/O conference in May, but there are several obvious signs. Google is testing an application in particular Gemini in some countries, with the possibility of replacing Google Assistant as your default voice assistant.
France, until now, has been relatively kept aside. The Gemini app was inaccessible unless you manually downloaded an APK file. However, things have just changed this Wednesday, June 5: Google has extended the availability of Gemini to other countries, including France. More broadly, the application is now offered “ in the entire Europe », According to the Mountain View firm.
With Gemini on their phone, the Internet user can “ get help in writing, orally or from an image », Explains Google. An example ? A photo of a flat tire is enough to trigger instructions on how to change it. Google’s ambition is to achieve a ” real helper » built on artificial intelligence.
A darkened horizon for Google Assistant
The future of Google Assistant appears more and more compromised. Launched in 2016, the utility appears less versatile and efficient than Gemini. The latter mobilizes large language models which have increased performance, even if, like any other AI, it can also hallucinate and say anything.
When configuring the Gemini application for the first time, Android offers to choose between the two voice assistants. Android will automatically switch to Google Assistant for a few simple questions (home automation, alarms, etc.), but will prefer Gemini the rest of the time.
In the days, weeks and months to come, Gemini will gradually recover the voice functionalities of Google Assistant, the American company confirms this in its press release. Therefore, even if a period of cohabitation will be observed soon, it is difficult to imagine Google keeping Assistant, which will appear more and more like an obsolete duplicate, a bit like Siri which could be replaced in iOS 18.
Access to Gemini requires two prerequisites on Android: you need a phone running at least Android 10 and a RAM of at least 2 GB. Downloading and using it is free, but you must have a Google account. It’s the same thing for the web version of the chatbot.
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