Google Assistant is disappearing from Android Auto soon, and Gemini isn't ready to replace it

Published Aug 5, 2026, 2:58 PM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Summary Google Assistant will soon end on phones, Wear OS, earbuds, and Android Auto starting on September 4th. Gemini replaces Google Assistant but is unpredictable, chatty, error-prone in Android Auto, and inconsistent with automations. Some smart home devices and Android TVs will still be able to use Google Assistant. Since Gemini arrived a few years ago, the writing was clearly on the wall for Google Assistant, the tech giant's first-generation voice-activated assistant. Now, according to an announcement email sent to some users (via 9to5Google) that was then shared on Reddit, Google will start removing access to Google Assistant on phones, Wear OS smartwatches, headphones, earbuds, and Android Auto starting on September 4th. With that in mind, if you're still clinging to Assistant, make sure you enjoy your final few weeks with the soon-to-be-dead voice-activated assistant. While Gemini is very capable on phones and smartwatches, its Android Auto integration can get very frustrating. For example, some commands don't work consistently, resulting in frequent "something went wrong" errors; it's very chatty, and most more complicated Automations (especially complicated custom ones) just don't work with Gemini yet — though Gemini Actions are a decent, less capable substitute. On the other hand, if you own a vehicle that supports a Google built-in infotainment system and not Android Auto, it looks like you'll still be able to use Google Assistant. It looks like some Google devices will still support Google Assistant Years after its release, Gemini still can't follow simple directions in some situations Google previously said it had plans to end Assistant support at some point in 2025, but the shutdown was delayed to 2026. At least right now, it seems like Google's smart home devices, like the Nest Audio, will still support Google Assistant. It also seems like Android-powered TVs and set-top boxes will still feature Google Assistant, at least for now. While we all knew this shift was on the way, it still comes as a bit of a shock to me. Gemini is undeniably far more capable than Google Assistant, but at the same time, the AI-powered helper is also far more unpredictable. With Google Assistant, at least you always know what to expect, while Gemini often goes off on tangents or forgets that it has access to a particular smart home device or tool. Hopefully, Google also has a Gemini update in the works that makes it work better with Android Auto.