When Google announced that it would be replacing the Assistant with Gemini, I braced for what I assumed would be the inevitable: a feature-rich experience marred by a frustrating transition period. Almost exactly one year later, however, the transition has actually gone smoother than I expected. Setting reminders and controlling smart home devices now work, and I haven’t found myself completely lost without the old Google Assistant. But while Gemini hasn’t been the disaster I feared, I can’t say it’s a clear upgrade either.
For all of Google’s promises about deeper reasoning and higher-quality responses, I feel like there’s very little that Gemini can do that Assistant couldn’t. So when I learned that AI startup Perplexity was stepping up to offer an alternative, I was immediately curious to see how it compared to Google’s old and new assistants. And after a week of use, I can confidently say that I won’t be returning to Gemini anytime soon.