Gemini? I don't have Gemini in my pixel 8a, stock
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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This reminds me that i wanted to unlicl my bootloader on my phone...
Hey Folks, we have "AI" for you and you will use it, whether you want it or not...
Is there a petition for antitrust charges against Google somewhere? I'm over the duopoly. Both options suck.
I just went into my settings after reading this article (and getting a bit frustrated that it was a wall of text with no clear instructions right up front).
I did a search in settings for "gemini" and found the Gemini settings. There's no clear 'off' switch. But there's is an option to switch back to Google Assistant. So I did that. And not when I search for Gemini in settings it urges me to enable Gemini.
I'm taking that as a good sign that I've disabled it permanently. Thought I'd post this info in case it helps someone else. Or so if I'm incorrect somebody else can correct me.
I mean there were no instructions up front because literally Google is refusing to give them, basically.
No more choice just the company force feeding the user and saying it's good for them.
Nowhere in the email or any of the Support pages did Google say how to remove all Gemini integrations from my phone.
I then emailed Google PR and... I asked if someone could provide actionable guidance for my readers who want to ensure Gemini integrations are completely disabled. Instead of answering the question, the person responding to my email wrote, in part: “This update is good for users: they can now use Gemini to complete daily tasks on their mobile devices like send messages, initiate phone calls, and set timers while Gemini Apps Activity is turned off. With Gemini Apps Activity turned off, their Gemini chats are not being reviewed or used to improve our AI models.”
Literally that reads like you can't turn it off and they just scrape less of your data on a technicality.
I just spent half an hour yesterday uninstalling all apps, registry entries and in-program options for Copilot in Windows and MS Office... but I still can't get rid of the Copilot button in Outlook. Searching for answers I ended up at the Microsoft support forums and clicked a link to office dot com... and realized there that the entire ecosystem is now called MS365 Copilot App (formerly known as Office)... so I suspect there will be NO way to remove this stuff in the future, and probably that MS365 Copilot will eventually replace Windows itself.
AICore under all apps. Disable and delete files. Done.
While I wouldn't assume anything is permanent these days, I'd agree for the moment. I had already uninstalled Gemini on my phone (2ish months ago) and just verified I still see Google listed as the default assistant.
Wish there were better 3rd party mobile options. On pc I can install Linux on any laptop made in the last 15 years and it will work basically flawlessly. No such equivalent exists for smart phones
I'm still praying for TempleOS mobile version.
God does not wish HolyC to compile to lowly ARM architectures
You really think that the holy OS can even fit in such a small, restrictive device as a cellphone? Of course not! It needs room to truly achieve transcendence.
FairPhone can run Postmarket OS, eOS, iodeos, calyxos and lineageos.
Some have longer support than others. Also you can buy separate parts for their phones and they are modular.
Yes but do they support the digital national ID and SSO apps that are (only) avaliable for android and apple? Until they do, a lot of users are going to be locked into those two big OS vendors. 😞
If you don't need any of that¸ you're good!
Enjoy your new linux phone!
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My experience with Gemini:
Hey Google, set a timer for 5 minutes.
Gemini: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
WTF is the point of it then?
Imagine taking away the only useful feature of a voice assistant 💀
When I first got into Android (I miss my Nexus 6 T.T ), it felt like I could do so much more with my phone than I can now. I had so much cool automation shit that leveraged stuff like Google assistant voice commands, but now it's shit on so many levels. It goes beyond the user facing side of things; I used to use the app Tasker for a lot of the automation stuff, and over the years, it seems like the dev has been climbing an uphill battle against Google gating off functionality, and generally making things opaque and difficult for developers.
My recent experience with my phone is I tell it to set a 5 minute timer and it sets one in the fucking Google search browser, and if I page away I lose the timer.
I just use the timer on my microwave, I suppose the kitchen is the most likely place you'd want a timer. Unless you were using 5 minute epoxy.
Laughs in Graphene
Is it just me or does it seem slightly sus that GrapheneOS is only available for Google hardware...
There are many technical reasons why: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
Every Android phone (besides Pixel) fails to meet the high technical requirements of the project.
Google: Laughs in "Everybody else you communicate with who has that shit enabled"
Sadly true in any situation that requires talking to anyone else.
Not a day goes by that I don't regret installing that on my phone.
This... Except for contactless payment.
I used graphene for a month. It was lovely. Even things like banking apps worked.
I don't care about absolute privacy, but I do care about controlling my privacy. Grapheme gave me that.
I had only 1 issue.
Contactless payment.
It's extremely convenient to me, from public transport to groceries. I just bop my phone.
The fact that Google has that locked down surely violates some EU laws. But I'm sure they wave away the laws because of "financial security" or some other bullshit.
As if bank card NFC/contactless doesn't suffer exactly the same issues.
I looked into some "graphene contactless payment" type systems or workarounds, and I couldn't find anything that would fill the gap.
"The fact that Google has that locked down surely violates some EU laws. But I'm sure they wave away the laws because of "financial security" or some other bullshit. "
I don't know as much as I'd like to about the regulatory side of this, but I know that Google and other big tech have done a masterful job of proactively building themselves into systems such that taking action against them is difficult.
I think that's part of why the US antitrust case against Microsoft a few decades ago fizzled out into nothing — even though Microsoft was deemed to have been a monopolist, the big question was how do we remedy that in a way that isn't going to be harmful? The consensus on this amongst people who I respect is that the results of the Microsoft case was woefully insufficient and something that helped to lay the foundations of the big tech dominance that we see today.
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I switched Gemini language to an unsupported language.
Your chats are saved in your account for up to 72 hours, whether Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.
https://myactivity.google.com/product/gemini
I wonder how long before AI services are added to ad blockers and VPN privacy controls.
up to 72 hours
(then we permanently add them to our private fingerprint folder based on any google-related link or api you've ever interacted with)
The time limits on their spyware might as well be ignored.
Bwahahahah
I locked that shit out fucking day one. Fuck Gemini.
Anyone know if this is happening outside the US and if it is whether it's happening inside the EU?
Opt-out by default in the EU I'm fairly sure.
You can check here: https://myactivity.google.com/product/gemini
I live in Finland using Android on a Nokia and I can switch Gemini off completely and choose to use the old Google Assistant instead. It did initially appear out of nowhere when they patched it in, but I could immediately turn it off with the same prompt that the other guy also got.
If it's unavoidable it seems to be an US only thing atm.
Yeah, this seems like an easy lawsuit in the EU tbh
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