If the sudden arrival of Google's Gemini chatbot wasn't obvious before, it is now.
The Gemini image generator has since been removed and people of color are now wearing Nazi-era uniforms. Chatbot comments continue to go in absurd directions, such as equating Hitler's record with Elon Musk's meme posts.
On Android, Gemini also breaks Google Assistant's song recognition. And for me, after Gemini's abhorrent cultural insensitivity, that's one of the most frustrating things.
Let me explain.
I primarily use Gemini on my older Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, which isn't the fastest Android smartphone. For a better experience, we've replaced the default home screen with a minimalist alternative: Niagara Launcher. This is basically an alphabetical list of apps installed on your phone.
Niagara is the best. But by design, it's limited in what it can do, so I've come to rely on Google Assistant (now Gemini) for tasks like setting timers and launching apps.
Song recognition, prompted by commands like “Hey Google, what's the song?”, is a useful feature provided by Google Assistant that I used frequently. It was useful for identifying tracks in nightclubs, restaurants, and bars that you would otherwise definitely forget. There is no shortage of apps that recognize songs. One example is Shazam, which is owned by Apple. However, Google Assistant was better in terms of accuracy, at least in my experience.
Imagine my frustration when I discovered that Gemini on Android couldn't recognize songs or even perform the basic task of sending a song ID request to Google Assistant.
When you ask Gemini, the Android alternative to Google Assistant, for a song ID, nerve You can suggest using an app like Shazam, or switch to Google Assistant to summon it. To add variety, we may also suggest random songs from YouTube.
Image credits: Google
I am keenly aware that this is a first world problem. I was able to launch song recognition from her Google Search app on Android. Alternatively, if I had used the traditional home screen, I could have placed a dedicated song ID shortcut.
But another appeal of Google Assistant's music recognition, at least for me, is the low barrier to use. I didn't have to fiddle with the app or type anything to trigger this feature. It's now up and running when I give a voice command later, so it's faster. This is useful when you want to quickly identify songs.
What makes the song recognition situation even more disappointing is the fact that I pay for the $20/month Google One AI Premium plan. Assumption Gain access to a more sophisticated and powerful Gemini experience.Probably more sophisticated other How — frankly, I haven't discovered it yet. However, in addition to broken song recognition, it lacks basic features such as playing songs and creating lists, so for now Gemini is the only replacement for his Google Assistant on Android. is very insufficient.
In full transparency, I reached out to Google about song recognition with Gemini. I will update this post if I receive a response.