I’ve long been waiting for Gemini to become the best AI chatbot, but that hasn’t happened yet. Gemini still hallucinates a lot and often shows a strong bias in its answers.
However, Gemini has its own strengths, and many of those are hard to ignore.
One such example is its tight integration with the rest of the Google apps and services. This is one of the reasons I use Gemini almost every day, despite all its flaws.
Recently, I took advantage of this integration and turned Gemini into my personal app detective. I was surprised to see how well it performed, saving me time and clearing up confusion.
I had one simple objective behind turning Gemini into my app detective: to stop installing the wrong apps on my phone.
After weeks of experimenting with this, I can say that anyone can use it to reap the benefits and save time scouting the right apps.
How I turned Gemini into my personal app detective
There are no hidden tricks for this. It’s as straightforward as it gets, so all you do is type the right prompt to find the right apps.
Instead of using the Google Play Store app, I open the Gemini app on my phone and ask what I’m looking for.
This wasn’t possible a couple of months ago, but that’s all in the past now, as Google announced the Google Play connected app for Gemini on Android in June this year.
If you are not sure what exactly you need, you can explain your objective by typing a prompt, and the chatbot will recommend the right apps along with links to download and install them on your phone.
It accurately suggested some of the best apps that fit my requirements every time I needed to install a new app, but had no clue what I should get.
For example, a couple of weeks ago, I needed a spirit level indicator to make some of the portraits look properly aligned and not slightly tilted on my walls. Instead of buying one, I reached out to Gemini for help.
I wrote a simple prompt in Gemini, asking it to recommend some of the best apps that could work as a replacement for a spirit level indicator.
In response, Gemini suggested three spirit level apps, with a short description of each of their strengths, the number of downloads, and the rating on the Google Play Store.
It doesn’t force me to view sponsored titles in the search results like the Google Play Store does. Gemini gives me a no-nonsense answer about what apps I need to install.
You can further filter the results in Gemini by typing more prompts. For example, if you want open source alternatives, you can clearly mention that in the prompt.
I don’t always type long prompts to install apps on my phone. Instead, when I want to install a specific app on my phone, I open Gemini and type “Install” followed by the name of the app.
This is better than typing the name in the Play Store.
Gemini’s app recommendations show biases, too
But I still don’t mind it
After finding the best app to use my phone as a spirit level indicator, I was thrilled and wanted to see how consistently Gemini performs.
But this time around, I put Gemini to the test to check if it shows any bias.
I asked Gemini to recommend the best note-taking app, and it suggested three apps, with Google Keep at the top position.
Next, I typed another prompt, asking Gemini to recommend the best cloud storage app.
Gemini, once again, didn’t hesitate to show Google Drive at the top of its list of suggested apps. Google Play Store, on the other hand, showed Microsoft OneDrive at the top after sponsored titles.
I ran this test again and asked it to recommend the best app for art and culture enthusiasts, and the number one on the list was Google’s Arts & Culture app.
However, I don’t mind the bias to keep pushing its own apps and services, because Gemini shows a short description, highlighting which app is the best fit for whom.
It would’ve been perfect had Gemini highlighted a summary of recent negative reviews of each app it listed.
I won’t install an app without Gemini ever again
In the last few weeks, I installed four unfamiliar apps on my phone, so I sought help from Gemini every time. I instantly got sound recommendations and decided for myself what to install.
I got used to it quickly, and now, I don’t want to go back to installing apps on my Android phone the old way.
I’d hate to see the wrong apps occupying my storage ever again, and Gemini is the only solution here.
