Samsung will end the Google Assistant on its TVs

The Google Assistant lost more than a dozen functions in January, and it doesn’t look like things are getting better. In this regard, Samsung revealed that it will do away with the Google Assistant on its TVs. I remember it was on several Smart TVs from 2022 to 2020.

Samsung will end the Google Assistant on its TVs

In Samsung support page which describes how the Google Assistant works on the manufacturer’s compatible TVs, a new note has appeared. This details the Assistant’s shutdown date. “Important: Due to a change in Google policy, Assistant will no longer be available on Samsung TVs starting March 1, 2024.”

The change affects all supported devices, including all 2022 and 2021 smart TV models, 2020 QLED 8K and 4K TVs, 2020 Crystal UHD TVs, and 2020 Lifestyle TVs such as Frame, Serif, Terrace, and Sero. To continue using the voice assistant on these TVs, you’ll probably have no choice but to switch to Bixby or Amazon Alexa, which are also available as alternatives.

The move away from Google Assistant isn’t entirely surprising for Samsung. Owners of the latest 2023 Samsung TV models have noticed and complained about the lack of Assistant support, which these models apparently never received. Even those who have supported models for a long time face problems.

It is possible that the Google Assistant as we know it is disappearing completely.

This to make way for Gemini.

Google’s generative AI strategy seems confusing at the moment, with a number of disparate services coexisting. So to make things easier, it looks like the company is planning to bring it all together using the name of its latest AI model, Gemini. In Google Bard’s website code, strings have appeared that suggest the company is planning to change Bard’s name to Gemini.

The rebranding is indeed in effect for Bard Advanced.

So the yet-to-arrive paid version of the chat tool is called “Gemini Advanced” in the strings. Although this new name seems simple, it can cause confusion. This is because the underlying Gemini model is available in three different levels of complexity that are described with similar words: Gemini Nano, Gemini Pro and Gemini Ultra.

With Google preparing this rebrand on the Web, a few more pieces of the puzzle are now falling into place. A few days ago, 9to5Google discovered that Google was planning to change the name of its new and improved version of Assistant to Gemini. Now everything makes sense in this strategy.

However, even if Google decides to move forward with the Bard rebranding, there are still other generative AI products that have a different name. Firstly, there’s Duet AI, which is the brand Google uses for its Workspace products. It’s possible that Google wants to create a clearer distinction between Workspace tools and consumer offerings so it can keep both names.