Summary
- Google’s Gemini is replacing Google Assistant as the default AI assistant, taking on all digital assistance responsibilities as Assistant is phased out later this year.
- Gemini is gaining “Scheduled Actions,” allowing users to automate recurring tasks and information delivery at specific times.
- These Scheduled Actions aim to streamline routines, offer personalized updates, and are rolling out to Google AI Pro and Ultra plan holders, with wider availability expected soon.
Gemini will soon take over the role of fulfilling all your digital assistance needs. With Google Assistant now being phased out, and expected to be completely out of the picture some time later this year, Gemini is assuming new responsibilities and capabilities as Google’s default AI assistant.
Google is enhancing Gemini’s capabilities with “Scheduled Actions,” which essentially serve a similar purpose to Google Assistant Routines.
The new functionality, highlighted by Google today in a new blog post, promises to “streamline routine tasks,” offer personalized updates, and handle your tasks in a proactive manner.
It aims to empower users by giving them an additional option to automate routine tasks or set up a recurring route for information delivery. According to the tech giant, this will function simply by instructing Gemini to perform a specific task at a specific time.
Rolling out now, but only for those with a paid plan
Examples of scheduled actions shared by the company include use cases like:
- Getting a summary of your calendar and unread emails every morning at a specified time.
- Having Gemini draft “five ideas for your blog every Monday.”
- Getting updates on your favorite sports team after their scheduled games.
- Getting a summary of a specific award show the day after it happens.
Other use cases that users might come up with include the likes of:
- Having Gemini provide a distinct ‘word of the day’ and its definition every morning at a specified time.
- Receiving a summary of top news headlines from the weekend on Monday morning.
- Easy recipe suggestions 30 minutes to an hour before dinner time every day.
In its blog post, Google suggested that users will be able to manage said actions anytime within the scheduled actions page within settings, altering or removing them if the need be. Scheduled Actions are rolling out now to Google AI Pro and Ultra plan holders. As of right now, I have yet to see the feature show up on my Google AI Pro account.
If Google follows its regular release pattern, the functionality should make its way to non-paying Gemini users very soon.
