Gemini is fumbling one of the most basic assistant tasks
As we recently covered, Pixel and Android users have been running into a frustrating bug where Gemini shows a false “Action failed” error after setting an alarm or timer. The alarm or timer actually gets created in the Clock app just fine, however, Gemini times out waiting for a confirmation signal from Clock, assumes something went wrong, and tells you it didn’t work.
Google has acknowledged this as a “known issue,” which is at least something. The official workaround is to go into your Gemini settings and toggle “Gemini Apps Activity” off and then back on to force a resync.
The timing could not be worse
But consider this: Google is actively killing Google Assistant, and by mid-2026, all new Android phones are expected to ship with Gemini as the only voice assistant. The escape hatch is closing.Also, on current Pixels, saying “Hey Google” opens Gemini regardless of what you’ve set as your default assistant. Then notice how Google has been stripping Assistant features for months now, from Driving Mode to Family Bell reminders.
A timer bug is actually a trust problem
This might sound like a minor inconvenience, but think about what people actually use voice assistants for every day. Cooking timers. Medication reminders. Morning alarms. These are tasks where reliability is not optional.
A timer that tells you it failed but actually fired is arguably worse than one that simply doesn’t work, because now you have no idea what to trust. It should be noted that this isn’t Gemini’s first stumble with the basics, either.
Google needs to earn this transition, not force it
I’ve experienced this kind of thing firsthand on my Google Home speaker. Gemini Live with screen sharing has also started failing at adding calendar events from screenshots I share with it, a task it used to handle without a hitch. Now, it just gaslights me and tells me it did something it clearly didn’t do.
Nobody is arguing that Gemini isn’t impressive for complex queries and longer conversations. It genuinely is, and the leap from traditional Assistant responses to actual AI-powered interactions is real. But Google cannot keep pushing users toward an assistant that stumbles on the simple, boring, reliable stuff people depend on every single day.
The smart move would be to keep Assistant’s proven paths intact for system-level tasks like alarms, timers, and calendar events, while letting Gemini handle the open-ended queries it’s built for. One assistant surface, two execution engines under the hood. Until Google figures that balance out, this transition is going to keep frustrating the very users it’s supposed to win over.
