At the start of September, the Google Assistant deprecation on mobile got underway. It now looks to be widely rolling out.
Google has been moving Assistant users to Gemini over the past few weeks. This deprecation was originally set for 2025 and later extended to 2026. In early August, Google announced the final timeline.
From various user reports today, this migration appears to be fully underway. Google Assistant is gone on all devices/accounts we checked in the US and Europe.
I can confirm that within the normal setting you can no longer switch between assistants, however, as soon as the maps navigation starts, the pixel buds switch to Google Assistant right in the setting and nothing works hands free. Literally, the settings page in the pixel buds app changes the moment you start navigating in maps. This is infuriating and I've been waiting for this day and this article to see if things were finally going to be resolved and so far, nope.
Notably, the Gemini app has removed the “Switch to Google Assistant” setting. This shortcut no longer appears at the bottom of the account menu with Google app 17.60 stable and 17.62 beta.
As such, you can no longer “use or switch back to Google Assistant on your phone, tablet, or paired devices.” The latter grouping includes Wear OS, headphones, and Android Auto.
There are no changes to Assistant just yet on “Google Nest and Google Home smart speakers, displays, or other Google Assistant-enabled speakers and displays.”
Gemini is now the “voice assistant experience on Android” when you long-press the power button or swipe from the corners.
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