Google is transitioning its premium headphone users from Google Assistant to Gemini, marking an aggressive rebranding across Android devices. The usual “Hey Google & Voice Match” setup now features “Talk to Gemini hands-free,” with onboarding promoting Gemini branding and animations instead of Assistant. This shift reflects Google’s aim to unify its consumer AI services under the Gemini brand, spanning phones, speakers, cars, and wearables.
In Android settings, Assistant labels are being replaced by Gemini throughout the voice trigger experience. The wake phrase remains “Hey Google,” but the system now says “Powered by Gemini,” and the “Hey Google & Voice Match” page is renamed to “Talk to Gemini hands-free,” accompanied by refined Voice Match management options. These changes align the hands-free voice experience with Gemini’s conversational UI on Android, signaling a broader rollout soon.
Google positions Gemini as its unified multimodal AI model family, enhancing features like reasoning, image understanding, and long-context processing. With Gemini replacing Assistant across Android voice functions, Google creates a single brand and product identity, simplifying user experience on over 3 billion devices. This consolidation allows Google to improve AI assistance consistently without managing overlapping services.
Functionally, the transition currently appears as mostly a rebranding move with minor UX improvements. Wake word detection and Voice Match enrollment behave as before, though Gemini increasingly handles backend voice requests, promising richer, more context-aware responses across apps. Features like messaging drafts, quick actions, and screen comprehension have moved to Gemini, offering more consistent conversational intelligence across voice, text, and camera inputs.
Users should update to the latest Google app version, follow prompts to switch to Gemini, and retrain Voice Match if requested. Checking activity controls to manage audio saving is recommended. Though menu names and branding are changing, the underlying voice commands and smart home or wearable controls continue functioning as before. Ultimately, Gemini is replacing Assistant as the central AI agent on Android for a seamless, unified AI experience across devices and applications.
