We Finally Know When Gemini Will Officially Replace Google Assistant – BGR

For years, Google Assistant has been one of the default ways to interact with Google products. The voice-based assistant let you make calls, set up timers and alarms, and even take on a ton of other tasks — all with just your voice. But we’ve known that Google planned to replace Assistant with its more-powerful Gemini AI model, and while the changeover has been slow, it looks like Google has finally focused in on a time to say goodbye to its OG voice assistant once and for all.

According to updated support documents, Google appears to have set a final retirement date for sometime in March 2026, with a banner on the support forum noting that Assistant will only remain available “until March 2026” (via AssembleDebug). At that point, it’s expected that any remaining Assistant functionality will transition to Gemini, completely replacing the OG Google Assistant on Android phones, Android Auto, Google TV, and whatever other devices Google wants to bake it into.

As we noted above, we’ve known that Google planned to retire Assistant for quite a while now. The writing has been on the wall for months, with Gemini rolling out to Android Auto and even the Google TV Streamer as a replacement for the built-in voice assistant. Google has even spoken publicly about its plans to phase out Google Assistant in favor of Gemini.

Not only does Gemini offer more capabilities, but Google has slowly been pulling features away from Google Assistant over the years. And as Gemini continues to get better — the recent addition of easier access to Gemini Live for instance — it is only going to become a stronger contender in the race to be your device’s best voice assistant.

While some Google Home devices still utilize Assistant, too, the lack of features and the iffy response to Assistant’s interactions as a whole has only helped fuel the need for a proper Assistant replacement with Gemini. And now that Google Home is starting to get Gemini integration across testing accounts, the Google Home system is finally starting to feel usable again.