I just want my Google Now back. It was so smart by comparison to Assistant or all the other modern “AI” crap. It didn’t try to write me a funny text, instead it contextually pulled actually useful information up so that when I get the idea to look at my phone for something, hey!, it’s already there!
The craziest thing was my trip to the UK back in the days. In order, it did the following:
- The evening before it asked me whether I want to be woken up a bit earlier (20 minutes) as the weather was expected to be very bad.
- It reminded me to pack an umbrella in the morning.
- When it had decided that my movement mode was driving (I had taken a taxi), it popped up that I needed to go to Terminal 2 at the airport (they have separate areas for dropping off passengers).
- Once at the terminal, my ticket + it’s QR code was persistent on the screen.
- It also had a persistent notification with the boarding gate + the current expected time (there was a slightly delay, hence I noticed).
- When I arrived at Heathrow, it offered on-foot navigation to the coach area.
- When I got closer, the coach ticket + it’s QR was persistent on the screen.
- Once in the coach it offered me information that the weather at my destination was expected to be sunny. And when I would probably arrive, of course.
For-fucking-hell Google, that’s exactly how I need a phone to assist me during a trip! I don’t need some shitty voice interaction or long flowing texts made up of filler words and wrong facts. I need contextual information that fits the fucking context! Google Now was insanely smart. It also did lots of little things, like when I got somewhere with a car, parked it, then walked off a bit, if I then sat down for a long time when the phone was moved again (say… when you get up out of the Restaurant!) the parked position would pop up. Smarts. Not useful very often, but smarts.
I still code with the mindset of “I need my software to be good or my clients will leave.”
Google no longer operates like this. None of what you listed has any financial benefit to Google. You’re not going anywhere. All they stand to do is make more money off of you. If they can simplify the software, from being handcrafted by humans perfectly for you, to, instead, generated by an unsalaried AI, they’ll do that. They stand to lose mostly nothing and gain by reducing their workforce.
The competition for quality doesn’t exist because the money they save by moving to AI is apparent across the industry. Everyone is looking to use it meaning the only competition is who can provide better cheap AI, not who can make a better product for their users.
You’re not going anywhere.
Why? I dropped maps completely as soon as they started enshittifying it with elements I don’t use that can’t be removed from the UI; now I use only OSMand. I dumped Chrome when they announced manifest v3 and use Firefox. I dropped Google Play store when they made it difficult to see the exact version and it turns out f-droid has everything I need. I also dumped gmail for k9; their sms client for an open source one; I removed their Youtube client and use Newpipe. I always search with Ecosia or DDG before trying google.
Good for you, but you are not the typical customer. The vast majority of people will put up with the enshitification and Google (and every other large company doing the same thing) will continue to reap billions in profit.
OSMand
I’ll be honest, as much as I love how well it does, it’s still leagues behind Google Maps. Would I be fine if Google Maps were to shut down? Sure. Just like how in theory, Apple Maps on DDG serves as a usable map system on the desktop. In reality, I see no reason not to use a competitor as superior as Google Maps, as long as I can. This isn’t a Chrome-vs-Firefox situation where in many regards Firefox is the superior choice even on features, Google Maps is, for all it’s woes, incredibly ahead of the competition.
Which makes sense: It’s used so broadly, and can accumulate so much data about how people move about, it has access to a host of knowledge about motion and movement that other map system cannot match, be it out of choice or not. With OSMAnd+ it’s a choice of course, but even if that weren’t the case they just lack that ability. They cannot know how right now foot traffic in a certain area of downtown is quite slow due to a demonstration just having ended and a lot of people moving through a few adjacent streets back to the main train station. Google Maps can. Because like 75% of people in that crowd have it on their phones and enabled.
Except for people like me I never paid Google with money.
I gave them my date for them to organise and assist me with.
If they can’t use my data to assist me, I’ll stop giving it to them by turning off permissions and features I don’t use.
Google really does need handling over your data to be useful. Especially as the EU gradually forces defaults to be for privacy. Google will need you to opt in more and more and that means they do need to give you good service.
As you continue to use their services you are shown ads or use services other companies have paid to have linked to. Even when things seem “free” they are never free. Google Maps makes money off charging their API for businesses. They charge what they do because their data quality is high. Their data quality is high because they track usage as well as ask users to improve their data (like ask if a restaurant has table service). Every time you search for a business or call a business because a Google search that gets tracked and compared. Businesses can also pay to appear higher in advertised search rankings.
TL;DR: You are given free access to improve Google’s data and they sell off that improved data to companies, or charge for higher visibility to their potential customers.
Ironically, a lot of what you liked on your trip to the UK never worked for me, living in the UK.
I can’t remember exactly which services now, but when I was trying to use Google Now a few years back, lots of it was region locked to America and a small handful of other countries. By the time things like pulling events from my calendar came out, it had switched to Assistant and didn’t work reliably.
I miss being able to set location based reminders… I have no idea why they removed that :(
I completely forgot they did this until I was trying to set a reminder for when I got home and it kept telling me “I’m sorry I didn’t understand” after every attempt. It’s not like they couldn’t implement that into Tasks.
It’s still s thing on Keep, in case it is helpful. Like you can have a note that has a reminder in certain location. That said I have never used it so not sure how good it is but the option is still there. And I don’t know of there is anyway to use the assistant for setting them.
That completely stopped working for me a while ago, but Samsung’s Reminders app was able to do it well.
I started using it instead, and the other day, uninstalled the Google Assistant app - the only time I was opening it was by accident, when I’d drift off to sleep holding my phone, and he rudely awoken by the noise it made.
Google throws a heap of apps and ideas at a wall to see what sticks. Then it periodically hoses down the wall. Never come to rely on a google app or service. It’ll be hosed off eventually.
The best summarization of the state of Google’s Assistant related support and dedication can be seen in this thread.
We sell device you use.
We know we added a problem that even replacing the device won’t fix.
We’re aware of the issue and are working on a fix.
We just downsized the department.
Crickets
All while users generally suffer.
