Following months of waiting, Google Gemini’s rollout on Android Auto is nearly complete. While the chatbot began appearing in November, it was made broadly available only a few weeks ago. It hasn’t been smooth sailing, though.
We’ve seen users complain that Gemini has been too chatty, leaving them with no option but to revert to Google Assistant. Now, another Gemini-related bug has been brought to light by multiple Android Auto users, in which the chatbot is randomly replaced by Google Assistant.
The earliest mention of this bug dates to last week and was posted on the Android Auto support forum. The fact that several users report experiencing the same erratic behavior, not to mention similar complaints on Reddit, suggests the issue may be widespread (via PiunikaWeb).
According to another affected user, the glitch doesn’t last for long and can randomly switch back to Gemini after a few hours, which can evidently be quite irritating.
There may be a fix available
As for potential remedies, one user believes switching to Assistant and then back to Gemini from Android Auto settings may help fix this glitch. You can try this yourself by navigating to Manage your digital assistant in Android Auto settings and tapping Digital assistants from Google. While we can’t conclusively say this works, there’s no harm in trying it out.
The good news is that the Android Auto team acknowledged the bug earlier this week, which means an official fix may not be far away. While that happens, Google still has a lot of work to do if it wants users to fully embrace Gemini on Android Auto. Complaints about Gemini in Android Auto are not new, though some of them have been rectified.
A quick look at Reddit suggests people are not fully on board with the idea of Gemini in Android Auto even today, and with good reason. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that users want to switch to Google Assistant. Although Assistant has its own limitations, it gets the job done.
Despite bringing a marked improvement in how responses are handled, it’s clear that Gemini in Android Auto is struggling to serve as a true replacement for Assistant. One can only hope that these issues are fixed and users can go back to using Gemini on Android Auto the way it was meant to be.
What has your experience with Gemini on Android Auto been like so far? Let us know below.
