Summary
- Setting Google Gemini as your default assistant app on Android breaks essential Google Assistant features.
- One of these features is the Broadcast button in the Google Home app, which is broken and shows a message stating “Gemini doesn’t support this feature” when Google’s new AI is set as the system-wide assistant.
- Interestingly, Gemini can broadcast to Google and Nest smart speakers when prompted via voice, so it’s only the button in the Google Home app that gets broken.
If there’s one thing Google is great at, it’s transitioning users to a new product in the worst way possible, breaking essential features in the process. Anyone who has used the Google WiFi app or Google Play Music and has endured the transition to Google Home or YouTube Music will understand that sentiment. Now, we see history repeat itself as Gemini replaces Google Assistant. It wasn’t so bad when you had to download Gemini intentionally, but now that regular users are being prompted on-device to make the switch, broken features are more important. I recently moved, and as I set up my Google Home and Nest products, I made an unfortunate discovery regarding the broadcast feature.
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Like Routines, the broadcast feature inside Google Home is also broken, among other functions. When tapped, you get a toast notification that says, “Gemini doesn’t support this feature.” This includes the broadcast button inside the new Google Home widget. The voice command still works if you ask Gemini to broadcast something, but it might be broken for some. Gemini didn’t roll out right away in Europe, so many of us sideloaded the APK. If you did that, the voice command breaks, too, and you’ll need to remove the sideloaded APK.
While this isn’t a huge deal for most people because voice commands are the primary activation method, some rely on the Google Home button. I, for example, have found both Gemini and Google Assistant to be wildly unreliable, so I’ve switched my default voice assistant to Bixby, but I like having Gemini on my phone to mess with.
Now, if I want broadcasts to work, I’ll have to either ditch Bixby or roll Gemini back to the old Google Assistant, neither of which I want to do. Google habitually breaks features important to users like this, and it’s no wonder that, combined with its penchant for killing services, people have low confidence in the company’s products.