Google Assistant is Dropping Support for Some “Underutilized” features

Google announced today that it’s about to remove several features in its Google Assistant that don’t get enough usage. The company said that this will help the team developing the AI assistant to focus on “quality and reliability,” which is indeed something Google Assistant needs to remain competitive.

“As we continue to make Google Assistant more helpful, we’re prioritizing the experiences you love and investing in the underlying technology to make them even better — which means that some underutilized features will no longer be supported,” explained Duke Dukellis, Vice President, Google Assistant. The full list of Google Assistant features that will soon be deprecated can be found on this page, but here are some of the biggest ones that will soon go away:

• Setting or using media alarms, music alarms, or radio alarms on Google Assistant enabled devices. You can create a custom Routine that has similar behavior or use a standard alarm.
• Managing a stopwatch on Smart Displays and Speakers. You can still set timers and alarms.
• Using your voice to send an email, video or audio message. You can still make calls and send text messages.
• Rescheduling an event in Google Calendar with your voice. You can still schedule a new event.
• Using App Launcher in Google Assistant driving mode on Google Maps to read and send messages, make calls, and control media. You can still use voice control on Google Maps the same way.
• Voice control for activities will no longer be available on Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 devices. You’ll need to use the buttons on your device to start, stop, pause, and resume activities. You can still voice control activities on Pixel Watches.
• Asking to take certain actions by voice, such as send a payment, make a reservation, or post to social media. You can still ask Assistant to open your installed apps.

Starting January 26, trying to perform one of these actions in the Google Assistant may display a notification explaining that these features will be deprecated after a certain date. Google also warned today that to provide a more consistent experience, the microphone icon in the Google app on mobile will now just trigger search results. On Android, Google Assistant can still be summoned using “Hey Google” or by doing a long press on the home or power button on select phones, while iOS users will still need to install the Google Assistant app.

In October, Google started teasing a new version of its Assistant that integrates the company’s Bard chatbot. The company said at the time that Assistant would be available in beta on iOS and Android in the coming months, but as recently reported by 9to5Google, some people have already managed to get access to it.