Google Reminders to require Google Assistant

[Karlston]

Google Reminders to require Google Assistant

Google is rolling out a change currently on Android that affects customers who use the Reminders feature of the Google application.

 

The Google application is installed on many Android devices and one of its features is called Reminders. It provides customers with options to set reminders, e.g. to make sure that you don't forget a birthday, buy certain products, or remember the room number on a trip.

 

Google started to roll out a major update a couple of days ago that finally broke with the group notifications view of reminders. The group view merged multiple reminders into a group which made it impossible to deal with them on a one on one basis in Android's notifications area.

 

 

The change that is rolled out now impacts all users of the Reminders feature. A report on Android Police suggests that Google moved Reminders under the Google Assistant umbrella. Means: if you have disabled Google Assistant or if Google Assistant is not available in your region, you cannot use Reminders anymore.

 

You need to use another feature for reminders, e.g. setting up events in Calendar instead.

 

Users from a region in which Google Assistant is available in have the following experience once the change lands: instead of adding or editing reminders in the Google application, you are taken to the Google Assistant application directly.  If you have turned Google Assistant off, you get a prompt to turn it back on first as you won't be able to use the reminders feature otherwise anymore.

 

Google customers who used Reminders to add "Place" reminders will notice that the option is no longer available in the new interface. It is possible that it gets added back at a later point in time but there is no guarantee for that. The only option, apparently, is to communicate with Assistant directly by saying something like "remind me to [something] when I get to [place]".

Closing Words

Google has not announced the change yet and it is unclear if it ever will. We don't know why the company is making the change but the most likely explanation is that it is interested in getting customers to use Google Assistant.

 

I have to admit that I don't use Google Assistant or the Google application on Android. I use the Calendar to set up reminders instead which works just fine

 

 

 

Source: Google Reminders to require Google Assistant (gHacks - Martin Brinkmann)