It’s gone on most phones, at least
It’s been a long time since Google Now disappeared from your phone’s home screen, but fans of contextual feeds and informational cards haven’t been without a replacement. Google launched Snapshot back in 2018, and although it’s gone through various changes since, it’s always been accessible through Assistant. Unfortunately, its days have come to an end, finally leaving the legacy of Now in the rearview mirror.
A new message greeted Snapshot users this morning, alerting them to the incoming death of the Now-esque service. The prompt serves as a reminder that calendar events, birthdays, stock prices, weather updates, and more can all be retrieved by asking Assistant directly — though, obviously, that’s a lot less handy than seeing everything in a card view. I’ve spotted the banner on my devices as well, and a linked support page makes it all too clear that Snapshot is coming to an end soon.
It’s not the first time Snapshot has seemingly been on death’s door. In 2021, it all but disappeared from the Google app multiple times, leaving users unable to access their feeds. Initially, it seemed like a bug, with the service coming and going between updates. With today’s news, it seems like a far more intentional test.
Unfortunately, there’s no hard date for when you can expect Snapshot to vanish for good — Google’s notifications simply state “soon.” While we’re only a couple of months away from Google I/O, you shouldn’t expect a replacement service to take its place. Instead, getting used to how Assistant covers all of Snapshot’s usual tricks is your best bet.
It’s a shame Snapshot was so buried from public view — if it was as prominent as Google Now once was, it could’ve been a real hit for the company. Instead, a poll from late 2020 showed that many of our readers didn’t even know the tool existed, and if they did, even fewer actually used it regularly. Snapshot joins the ever-growing graveyard of apps and services killed far too soon.
UPDATE: 2022/04/14 14:13 EST BY WILL SATTELBERG
Gone for most
It’s been over a month since we found out Snapshot would be leaving phones for good, and in that time, we’ve seen it appear on fewer and fewer devices. Now, it seems like Snapshot is gone for good. The folks at 9to5Google report that most users have had their shortcuts disappear, and we can confirm the same on our array of smartphones. It’s possible some users may see Snapshot’s icon appear in their Discover feeds, but for most, it’s finally found its place in the Google graveyard.
Thanks: Ziad, Dimitre, and Jeffrey
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