Google is finishing the job of replacing Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones. Reports from 9to5Google and Droid Life on September 28, 2026 say the “Switch to Google Assistant” setting has disappeared from the Gemini app, leaving Gemini as the voice assistant on Android phones, tablets, Wear OS watches, headphones and Android Auto.
The change closes a transition Google first said would wrap up in 2025. It ran most of a year late, and it leaves a split inside Google’s own lineup: phones now run Gemini, while Nest and Home speakers and displays keep the older assistant, according to both 9to5Google and Google’s own support documentation.
The setting that vanished from the Gemini app
Until this month, an Android user who had moved to Gemini could open the app’s account menu and pick “Switch to Google Assistant” to bring the old assistant back. According to 9to5Google’s report, that toggle is gone in Google app versions 17.60 stable and 17.62 beta. The site said users can no longer “use or switch back to Google Assistant” on a phone, tablet or paired device, and that Gemini now answers a long press of the power button or a swipe from a screen corner.
Droid Life found the same change on a Pixel 11 Pro running Google app version 17.62.9. Its author, Kellen, wrote that Android users are now “officially stuck on Gemini going forward.” Neither outlet cited a new Google announcement for this final step, and no Google post dated September 2026 turned up while reporting this article.
A schedule that slid from 2025 into 2026
Google set the direction in a March 14, 2025 post by Brian Marquardt, senior director of product management for the Gemini app. “Later this year, the classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores,” he wrote. Tablets, cars, headphones and watches were to move to Gemini as well, while devices below Gemini’s minimum requirements, such as those with under 2GB of RAM or running Android versions before 10, would keep Assistant unchanged.
The 2025 date did not hold. In a December 2025 update, Google said the transition would “continue into 2026” to “deliver a seamless transition,” after earlier saying it aimed to upgrade Assistant to Gemini on most mobile devices by the end of 2025. The company added that “more details will be available in the coming months” on the schedule.
Then came a firm date. Implicator reported on August 6 that Google would discontinue Assistant on September 4, replacing it with Gemini across Android phones, tablets, Wear OS, headphones and Android Auto, in a rollout lasting several weeks with no option to revert once it reached a device. Droid Life dates the start of the shutdown to September 3 and says users were notified in August. By September 28, 9to5Google described the migration as broadly in place.
The move has not been smooth for everyone, and the friction is not limited to a single app. Implicator, citing Ars Technica, said Gemini sometimes “goes off on a tangent or forgets that it does, in fact, have access to a particular tool,” which frustrates users who want a quick voice command. It also pointed to reports of Android Auto integration errors and fewer automation options than Assistant offered. Google had used the extra year to improve Gemini, according to the same report, but had not publicly explained the delay.
Where Assistant still runs
The replacement is not universal. Implicator lists cars with Google built in, Google TV devices, home speakers and smart displays, older devices below Gemini’s requirements and regions where Gemini is unavailable as places where Assistant was expected to stay. 9to5Google likewise said Assistant continues on Google Nest and Google Home smart speakers and displays.
Google’s own Gemini Apps Help page agrees on that point. It says that “on other non-mobile devices, including Smart Displays, smart speakers, TVs, cars, and Pixel Tablets that are locked, including in Hub Mode, Google Assistant will continue to respond to ‘Hey Google.'”
The same help page, when fetched on September 29, still described how to switch a phone back to Google Assistant through settings. It had not been updated to match the reports, so the “no way back” description rests on 9to5Google and Droid Life observing the missing setting on current builds rather than on a Google statement. For owners of older phones or accounts in unsupported regions, the reports do not say whether the toggle survives, and Google has not said how it will treat devices below Gemini’s minimum requirements now that the phone-side switch is gone. The open question is whether Google publishes a dated support notice that settles which devices, if any, can still go back to Assistant.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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