Google Assistant
Ranked 4 of 19 smart speakers by recommenders
People recommend it for reliable timers, alarms, reminders and music control, especially the older non-LLM version. Most common caveat: critics say it has worsened since Gemini was added.
People recommend it for reliable timers, alarms, reminders and music control, especially the older non-LLM version. Most common caveat: critics say it has worsened since Gemini was added.
97 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 33
- criticize it
- 64
- approval share
- 34%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 33 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Old non-LLM version worked well
“In the old versions of Alexa and Google Assistant (before LLMs), you could memorize a couple of voice commands that they'd reliably recognize”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Gemini ending free use of Flash and Pro models” “the old assistant is pretty smart, obviously it has some language processing”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app” “The old non-LLM Google Assistant works well in a limited domain”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “John Giannandrea to retire from Apple” - Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending”
- Comment from 25 Sep 2026 on Hacker News
- Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending”
- Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Gemini 3”
- Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars”
Music and voice control
“I could say "Hey Google, play daft punk" and it would start playing Daft Punk on Spotify.”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Siri AI” “the voice control over music, navigation and climate are so good”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Volvo Centum is Dalton Maag's new typeface for Volvo” “It would very reliably play most songs that I wanted to hear”
Comment from 8 Oct 2026 in “Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB” - Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Volvo Centum is Dalton Maag's new typeface for Volvo”
Reliable timers, alarms and reminders
“"Remind me [at datetime/in x hours] about Y." is very useful for handsfree reminders”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “I Fired Google” “I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “How to disable or avoid intrusive AI” “it would reliably create a reminder on my calendar”
Comment from 8 Oct 2026 in “Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB” - Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “John Giannandrea to retire from Apple”
Understands several languages well
“Recently the assistant started understanding when I speak Portuguese or when my wife switches to it in a text message.”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Apple update looks like Czech mate for locked-out iPhone user” “Android and Google Assistant has had excellent support for Polish for more than a decade”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Worse since Gemini and LLMs
“It worked great, then they launched Gemini and moved features out of Assistant.”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices” “Google Assistant has gotten progressively worse over the years - more ads, slower responses, and losing the ability to do basic tasks it used to handle.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Google Home Users Are Trying to Hack Their Way to a Better Voice Assistant” “In the old versions of Alexa and Google Assistant (before LLMs), you could memorize a couple of voice commands that they'd reliably recognize”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Gemini ending free use of Flash and Pro models” - Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Gemini 4 Argon”
- Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook”
- Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Google Assistant is going away on Mobile Devices”
- Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “What the heck is going on at Apple?”
- Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Siri AI”
Slow to start or respond
“timers and smart home actions are definitely less reliable and sometimes take absurdly long to respond”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app” “Google Assistant has gotten progressively worse over the years - more ads, slower responses, and losing the ability to do basic tasks it used to handle.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Google Home Users Are Trying to Hack Their Way to a Better Voice Assistant” “Now it takes 10-15 seconds to start after a voice command, won't audibly alert or even stop music to take voice input”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?” Breaks often, slow fixes
“Google also keeps breaking everything with the home voice assistants, and this has been true for ages and ages.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending” “if I had any issue like that I'd be waiting months or years for a fix, if it ever came.”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “What was your "Oh Shit" moment with GenAI?” “I really wonder if Google has any reasonable QA people still working on this stuff.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending”
Other smart speakers people recommend
The four most recommended other smart speakers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siri | 165 | 715 | 19% | 12 | 7 yrs23 owners | — |
| Amazon Alexa | 45 | 131 | 26% | 11 | — | — |
| Bose SoundTouch smart speakers | 37 | 18 | 67% | 1 | — | — |
| Google AssistantThis page | 33 | 64 | 34% | 10 | — | — |
| Apple HomePod | 30 | 45 | 40% | 10 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 112 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“huge degradation in the reliability and usefulness of Google's digital assistant following its incorporation of "AI"”
“it would reliably create a reminder on my calendar”
“It would very reliably play most songs that I wanted to hear”
“In the old versions of Alexa and Google Assistant (before LLMs), you could memorize a couple of voice commands that they'd reliably recognize”
“google assistant was better than it before llms”
“Now it takes 10-15 seconds to start after a voice command, won't audibly alert or even stop music to take voice input”
“Android and Google Assistant has had excellent support for Polish for more than a decade”
“Google assistant on the nvidia shield left Siri in the dust years ago”
“I forgot people already be yelling Alexa/Siri/Google.”
“I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events”
“a toggle to opt back into Google Assistant, but it doesn't work”
“It worked great, then they launched Gemini and moved features out of Assistant.”
“One of the few things google did better than Apple was the minimal assistant. That's gone.”
“the killer feature for me is (funny) a vestige from the Google Podcasts days”
“previously I could say 'stop the news' and the radio would continue”
“"Remind me [at datetime/in x hours] about Y." is very useful for handsfree reminders”
“used to have amazing features on android, assistant and maps, that are just gone now”
“I could say "Hey Google, play daft punk" and it would start playing Daft Punk on Spotify.”
“Google Assistant and Siri were doing since many years”
“if I had any issue like that I'd be waiting months or years for a fix, if it ever came.”
“It's a lot less annoying to deal with and more consistent.”
“random things that worked rather well in assistant until they started trying to push Gemini”
“now it's a million times better than the old assistant”
“timers and smart home actions are definitely less reliable and sometimes take absurdly long to respond”
“the old assistant is pretty smart, obviously it has some language processing”
“Recently the assistant started understanding when I speak Portuguese or when my wife switches to it in a text message.”
“Google Assistant has gotten progressively worse over the years - more ads, slower responses, and losing the ability to do basic tasks it used to handle.”
“the voice interface is great while driving”
“the voice control over music, navigation and climate are so good”
“Old assitent never made this mistake”
“I really wonder if Google has any reasonable QA people still working on this stuff.”
“Google also keeps breaking everything with the home voice assistants, and this has been true for ages and ages.”
“I went back to the old google assistant”
“When it came out in 2016 Google Assistant was delivering value”
“At least Assistant called the primary designated number for someone”
“both Google and Amazon tried to add LLMs to their assistants and they are both worse now”
“The old non-LLM Google Assistant works well in a limited domain”
“It works pretty well for me, but doesn't do nearly what I'd expect.”
“I use it almost daily, to set timers and alarms”
“the old actually useful Assistant app”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.