If you long-press your phone’s power button expecting your trusty legacy assistant on Android, you might be in for a rude awakening. Google has officially pulled the plug on Google Assistant on mobile devices, locking users into Gemini and shutting down the escape hatch for good.
Google started emailing users last month to announce the final phase of its assistant deprecation. The timeline originally targeted 2025, but it moved later into 2026. The official shutdown phase kicked off on September 4, and reports (1, 2) confirm that the migration is now fully underway across devices in the US and Europe (via Android Authority).
The switch back toggle vanishes from the Gemini app
The clearest sign of the shutdown is the complete removal of the “Switch to Google Assistant” shortcut inside the Gemini account menu. The toggle vanished following updates to the Google app, specifically version 17.60 stable and version 17.62 beta on the Play Store.
Now, long pressing the power button or swiping from the bottom corners now routes strictly to Gemini on smartphones, tablets, Wear OS smartwatches, paired headphones, and Android Auto accessories. Multiple users have confirmed the change across a wide variety of hardware.
User frustration over missing smart home skills
While tech lovers usually embrace software upgrades, many users are expressing deep frustration on Reddit about losing Assistant. While Gemini excels at natural conversations and complex reasoning, it still lacks basic Assistant functionality. This includes offline voice commands for quick phone settings and smart home automation routines.
Generative AI hallucinations, copyright issues, data privacy questions, and broader environmental concerns also make many Android users hesitant about this mandatory swap. Interestingly, the standalone Google Assistant app still works on iOS devices for the time being. That means Google’s back-end servers are still up. Plus, Google Nest and Google Home smart speakers or displays are not affected by this mobile phase-out and will continue supporting standard Google Assistant controls.
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