Survey shows dropping Assistant for Gemini was one of Google's biggest blunders

When Bard launched back in 2023, the writing was on the wall for Google Assistant. The new-generation chatbot, which would eventually become one of the many masks of Gemini, hinted that the older virtual assistant simply wasn’t enough for the company and its users. Google wanted something fresh, backed by an LLM, that could do everything Assistant could and a whole lot more.

Fast-forward to October 2026, and I’m not sure Google’s grand designs have come to fruition. After Assistant was officially shut down last month, my colleague Adamya Sharma documented the reams of Gemini complaints still circulating around the web.

As an Android Auto user, Gemini’s rollout has been a failure. I no longer have confidence that my commands will be understood or implemented in a timely and accurate manner. It has ruined my in-car workflow, and many others agree.

Of course, while Gemini doubters seemingly outnumber its supporters, not everyone will react so strongly to its mere mention.

In a recent poll, we asked users for their experience with Gemini since it replaced Assistant. With more than 1,300 votes in, this is how you feel.

There’s no point in beating around the bush here. More than two in five readers (42%) see Gemini as a “downgrade” and want Google Assistant back. It’s worth noting that we didn’t specify a platform in the poll, so this is our readers’ experience across all the domains where Gemini may have replaced Assistant. That certainly says a lot about its performance across the board.

A fifth of respondents (20.9%) are a little more forgiving, noting that Gemini is a “mixed bag” — sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. This inconsistency is certainly a problem I’ve personally experienced in the car.

A cohort of 16.3% believe Gemini excels at “AI tasks,” but “struggles with basic commands,” while 13% believe it’s a blanket improvement over Assistant. The remaining 7.8% of respondents haven’t used Gemini as their virtual assistant.

‘Seriously, it’s like a downgrade’

Our readers’ comments shed some light on the negativity shown towards Gemini.

I quite like commenter Absolute Rainbow Extra’s question: “Why can’t Google port Google Assistant into Gemini?” Obvious, right? It’s what many users, including myself, genuinely crave.

Others were more pointed in their criticism. Robert Wilson writes:

Seriously, it’s like a downgrade. A big downgrade. I try to ask it to call Mom. It can’t call Mom. It takes a very long time even when it does. A lot of things fail. Simple tasks fail. I switched on my own before I was forced to Gemini thinking it was more updated and would provide a better experience and it’s completely the opposite. Tried to go back to assistant and found out it no longer exists. I use Google everything so I know how the stuff is supposed to work and it’s definitely a downgrade.

Reader Michael Shappe offers Google a suggestion:

The Assistant->Gemini switch is flawed at its very conception. Nobody really needs an LLM for their daily personal assistant. They need what they already had in Google Assistant, made reliable.

However, some don’t seem to have any issue with Gemini’s performance. Per commenter noahtonk:

For anyone reading this article and trying to decide if they are going to buy an Android or not, Gemini is working just fine on lots of phones, including mine.

Regardless of how powerful Gemini’s underpinnings are, it’s clear that Google still has plenty of work to do behind the scenes to bring the new-generation virtual assistant up to speed in executing practical commands. It might be just fine as a prompt-crunching AI chatbot, but what it isn’t is a reliable virtual assistant.

The big question remains: why is it taking Google so long?

What do you make of Gemini, since it replaced Google Assistant as the virtual assistant on Android and other platforms? What is your biggest issue with it? Do you believe that its performance warrants the criticism it receives? Let’s discuss in the comments below.