Google Assistant App Revived After 1.5 years (Download)

Earlier this year, we reported how Google Assistant hasn’t been updated in over a year and is failing on several platforms, especially Android Auto and Wear OS! While Google is working on replacing Google Assistant with Gemini AI, the current solution is half-baked. Android phones are running Gemini as default, whereas Android Auto & Wear OS are still stuck on Google Assistant. So the bigger question is whether Gemini is fully replacing Google Assistant any time soon?

Given that the Google Assistant app was recently updated, it appears that Gemini will require some time to become the default assistant on all Android platforms. After abandoning the assistant app for over 1.5 years, a new version just popped up with build 0.1.766117055. This is great news, especially for Android Auto where the Google Assistant was failing for many users.

Google Assistant, which has over a Billion downloads on Android, has been causing issues with Android devices. It’s about Google released an update to the native assistant app, which should now work better on Android Auto, Wear OS, and older smartphones.

Google Assistant better than Gemini?

As much as we want AI assistants for Cars and Wear OS, a significant number of users still prefer the native Google Assistant. Google officially announced that Gemini AI is in active development for Android Auto and Wear OS.

However, this does not mean Google should outright stop working on Google Assistant. According to Google, Android Auto is compatible with more than 200 million vehicles—a substantial user base that warrants continued support rather than abandonment. Google Assistant is still the main assistant for cars, and not everyone is ready for the change just yet. Maintaining assistance for these devices remains critical moving forward.

Google Assistant has long been touted as a cornerstone of the Android Auto experience, promising seamless voice-controlled navigation, communication, and entertainment.

But a recent surge of complaints from Android Auto community paints a different picture. This past year, users are reporting rampant inconsistencies, misunderstood commands, and outright failures when attempting to perform basic tasks like responding to WhatsApp messages or controlling Spotify.

The problem is Google Assistant’s is outright declining to respond in some cases. Many Android Auto users report that Google Assistant (GA) struggles with voice recognition accuracy, contextual understanding, and response consistency.

One user highlights a recurring issue of GA fails to recognize even straightforward responses. When asked, “Do you want to reply?”, responding with “No” often triggers confusion. GA might respond with, “Sorry, did you want to reply?” despite clearly registering the input.

The most frustrating of all is commands like “Play [song name] on Spotify” often result in GA playing unrelated tracks. It also fails to recognize locally stored music. Most of all, it ignores volume adjustments or playlist requests.

Google Assistant Update

Google released the latest assistant update to v0.1.76 weighing 2.31 MB, nearly twice the size as compared to the previous version.

Instead of abandoning Google Assistant outright, the company has decided to revive it for the near future. This should fix majority of the underlying problems related to Google Assistant.

So download and install latest Google Assistant 0.1.76 APK, at least for Android Auto and Wear OS, until the inevitable takeover of Gemini on all of our devices.