Google released the Gemini app in February, but to enjoy the AI that was meant to replace the old Google Assistant experience you had to have a high-end phone handy. Not now.
First of all it must be said that the Gemini app probably won’t have a very long “career”, as Google is already preparing the integration of its functions with the Google app, the one that any Android phone with access to Google Play Services has pre-installed. But in the meantime, you can experiment with Google Bard’s successor as a chatbot and AI assistant.
Based on generative artificial intelligence technologies, Gemini is considerably more versatile than the old Google Assistant. For example, you can converse with Gemini in ways that would have seemed inconceivable with the old Assistant, asking questions in natural language and receiving back well-reasoned answers, even showing something that could be interpreted as intuition. It’s actually just Google’s algorithms, plugged into your data and trained to anticipate your every move.
Until now you needed at least a device running Android 12 to use the Gemini app, otherwise you were directed to gemini.google.com, where you were left with a much more generic experience, with AI unable to deliver those commands that require direct access to your phone. Fortunately, Google has adjusted the list of system requirements, allowing the Gemini application to be installed on older generation devices equipped with at least the Android 10 version.
Important to know, the phone must have at least 4GB of RAM, the application code being quite loaded, even if the processing of AI functions is done on cloud servers. Even so, a perfectly cursive experience cannot be guaranteed on devices as old as the Pixel 2 series, older Samsung, Nokia, or OnePlus phones, especially if the chipset used was not of a very high level even at the time the purchase. However, Google seems to think that even a less-than-ideal first contact with Gemini could improve the Android experience, while also convincing users to choose an Android phone as an upgrade solution.
