Google retires Assistant on September 4 as Gemini takes over Hey Google

Google will retire Google Assistant on September 4, exactly ten years after it launched alongside the first Pixel. Emails are already being sent to users: on that date a wave of disconnections will begin, lasting several weeks, and when it reaches a given user there will be no way back. From now on, the “Hey Google” command will invoke Gemini only, on phones, tablets, smart displays, speakers, watches and even headphones that previously supported the veteran assistant. Devices that meet the minimum requirements will receive the new model automatically; those that do not will be left without a voice assistant altogether.

The Assistant dominated the voice-assistant market until ChatGPT arrived at the end of 2022 and changed the rules of the game. Google responded with Bard, rebranded it as Gemini in early 2024, and only then managed to re-enter the race. In the meantime the long-standing assistant was frozen, receiving no new features or attention while all resources flowed to the “new baby”. In early 2025 Google announced the eventual shutdown, postponed execution to 2026, and now has set a final date.

The migration is already optional for early adopters, but in about a month it will become mandatory and irreversible. Google’s email does not detail the exact minimum specifications for Gemini on each device type, nor does it explain what will happen to hardware that falls short. Headphones are a particularly sensitive case: models that relied on Google Assistant for voice commands will lose that capability entirely, with no local alternative.

Google’s “graveyard” is gaining a familiar resident. Assistant was the product that brought conversational AI to hundreds of millions of daily users, and now it is ceding the stage to a large language model that aims to handle everything from typing messages to planning trips. The transition is abrupt, with no real overlap period, leaving many users facing a reality where their most basic voice command is replaced overnight.