GoKawiilEdgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR Users on underpowered devices, like Android Go, have not been forced to move to Gemini yet.
Now Assistant Go is preparing a new deprecation message that could signal a transition to Gemini.
It’s yet unclear exactly how Gemini’s minimum system requirements may be changing.
Gemini is the future of Google’s virtual assistant — make no mistake about that. While the transition has felt a bit piecemeal so far, little by little we’re seeing Google get around to replacing Assistant with Gemini on everything from smart speakers to our vehicles. While phones were some of the first devices to make the switch, that move hasn’t applied universally, and a big blank spot there has involved lower-powered hardware that didn’t initially meet Gemini’s minimum spec requirements. Now we’re finally getting an idea of what a path forward to Gemini might look like for those devices — or getting the first hint of a bleak future with neither Assistant nor Gemini.
Back when Google first started detailing how the transition to Gemini was going to work, the company was clear that the long-term goal was to move users off Assistant; while we initially had the option to stick with Assistant, Google eventually made that mandatory for all compatible devices. The problem there is that Gemini has minimum requirements like 2GB of RAM, so Google said that if your phone wasn’t capable of accessing Gemini, you’d be free to stick with Assistant.
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That was over a year ago, though, and Gemini models have gotten a lot better on multiple fronts — including the ability to function with fewer resources. Could that maturity mean that Google’s getting ready to bring Gemini to even Android Go devices?
Low-powered Android Go handsets have had access to Google Assistant Go — a pared-down version of Assistant that lacks fancier features like smart-home control. So far, though, there hasn’t been an equivalent solution available for Gemini. But in Google’s version 2.18.0 update of the Assistant Go app, we’re seeing some text strings that may suggest that’s about to change:
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