Since Google killed their Assistant, I've been forced onto Gemini, on my Pixel watch and phone, and Android Auto. I haven't made the switch in my Google Home devices yet, because Gemini warned me it wasn't up to snuff, but it seems this is true across the board. But maybe there are some privacy settings or something in the way, or I'm just not using it right?

I'm sorry that I don't know what Gemini model I'm using, but I keep getting emails saying I have 'Google AI Plus', but if this is 'plus', then 'minus' must be completely unusable. Gemini really doesn't seem any better than when I first tried it a couple of years ago, an experience which made me resist switching over it before I was forced to.

The issues I'm having? Well, it constantly makes stuff up that's just plain wrong, it's completely ignorant of the environment it's in (e.g. it gives me instructions for Apple when I'm using my Pixel phone or Linux browser), it messes up even more than Google Assistant did at controlling blinds and things in my houses, and when I press and hold the power button on my phone to try to continue a conversation, it's forgotten what we were talking about—surely that's not the intended behaviour! Is there an option for that I'm overlooking? It's also not as fast as Google Assistant was, either, but it's also not as slow as it apparently is for some people, on my Pixel 10 Fold Pro.

But the worst lies of all are when it tells me it'll do things the way I want in future, and this is the main thing I think surely must be a problem with settings or something. It persists with US spellings and units, despite promising over and over again it'll write in Australian English and SI going forward, like Google Assistant did straight out of the box, because that's what all my Google settings are set up for—I swear, I'm going to throw my phone if it prattles on about fahrenheits or other steam-aged rubbish again! It needlessly checks with me before adding things to my shopping lists, despite previously having said it would just do it, again the way Assistant did. And at least Google Assistant f'ed off when I told it to; this AI chides me for 'harmful language' instead, after interrupting my driving again to ask if there's anything I want, when I previously told it no and to leave me alone, ever so politely. I've dug around Android Auto's settings for that last one, but again, I haven't found anything… it just refuses to go back to playing music after I've added a destination in Google Maps, and saves the conversation I'm having with passengers to text. 🙄

Frankly, Gemini is an imbecile, compared with even the most basic Claude Code or even last year's ChatGPT, which at least have some understanding of the environment they're running in, and are generally reasonably good at remembering things about me. Surely there's something I'm missing in Gemini, some setting to get it to remember my preferences, be aware of its environment, and not start every conversation as if it's our first ever? And is there some way to get it to just tell me when it doesn't know something, instead of wasting my time with crap?

I'm logged into the same Google account everywhere, and have turned off all the pretend-privacy settings I've found—let's face it, Google knows everything about who I am, where I've been and what I like, so I don't see why I need to constantly tell its AI these things, especially what language and units to use—this information is set correctly everywhere in my Google account! Any advice for what I might be missing? Or is this service really just that bad?

I know that I'm perhaps like an AOL user being unleashed onto Usenet, perhaps missing something really basic, that people here are tired of telling people. If so, I apologise, but please understand it's not by choice… Assistant had its quirks, I'd stick with it if I still had that option! And each time I've just asked Gemini about these things, its answers have been as unhelpful as ever—it's as if it's the proverbial AOL user! So I asked it which Reddit to ask in instead, and it suggested r/GeminiAI. But I've learnt to be sceptical about anything it says, so I'm kinda cross-posting here.