Thats nothing, the Play Integrity API is trying to block usage by other operating systems like CalyxOS and Graphene. Imo much more insidious and opaque.
Is it bad that I stopped using Google docs and plan on moving to OpenOffice instead?
I’d recommend libreoffice, because oracle also kinda sucks.
Why would that be bad?
Every Google Drive action I do now is shifted over 20% for ✨
I tried to ask it how I could remove it, Gemini told me that in order for me to help it I needed to active some of the “smart” features I didn’t have active on my account, essentially helping do the opposite. It follows the ever increasing practice of trying to shove basically illegal behavior into “it’s just the algorithm, bro, there was no intent!”
The good news is that this may cure my laziness. I’ve been preparing to leave most of google service for a while now.
to be fair, Microsoft is also shoving Copilot down our throats. They keep adding unremovable Copilot buttons to Outlook.com
They replaced the “M365” app icon with “M365 copilot” and the copilot icon on android the other day. I Uninstalled it.
It’s nice to be able to use copilot in some of these apps, it is shit to be forced to have it everywhere.
I would say that neither corporation forcing AI on us is fair by any stretch
It is one of the few useful usecases tho. It can summarize meetings if transcribe is on.
Oof, luckily I don’t have to use o365 at work anymore.
Or I ask to go to Costco, and where Assistant previously would route me to the nearest one, Gemini sends me to one 80 miles away
I love the dedicated piracy folder lmao
That’s my biggest gripe with Gemini; it’s not a proper replacement for Google Assistant and yet it’s still treated as such.
Feels like Google took at least two steps back when it comes to Gemini on Pixel devices…
Google was “cool” 2 decades ago… or before they combined both monetization (through ad) with power (through monopoly) they inexorably transformed EXACTLY to Microsoft the same way Facebook/Meta did the Google playbook.
Those huge tech corporations are pulled by the market to follow the same, sadly successful, strategy playbook and keep no uniqueness.
Google has been the new Microsoft for years already but through careful marketing consumers somehow believe they aren’t.
Google is slipping. Duck duck go is a better search engine. There are better mail systems as well. Meta is done as well.
When the leaked internal video came out about Google’s real vision, everyone said it is fake. It does not look that fake now.
Which video was this?
Thanks! I’ll give this a watch.
We don’t “get” tech anymore. Tech happens to/at us. We are already getting AI generated ads. Where are the AI based ad blockers?
Already happened. It died because it turns out the AI was funneling all of your browsing data to the servers running the AI instead
GPT-AdBlocker for Chrome promises to block all ads, including ads in videos - gHacks Tech News - https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/19/gpt-adblocker-for-chrome-promises-to-block-all-ads-including-ads-in-videos/
They’d be useless. Unless you trained it yourself there would 100% be a whitelist you couldn’t see, or it’d be gobbling up all your data.
Apple Intelligence too. Thankfully you can still disable it
I’m being serious with this comment. In no way have I felt like Google has forced Gemini on me. I barely notice it exists. Can anyone give me examples?
They’ve stuffed it into every page in Google cloud and workspace.
I tried it in sheets one time and it literally made up fake data for my analysis. Never trusting that again.
It “messaged” me in Google Messages today introducing itself and how it could summarize text messages on my phone for me
Ah, I don’t use most of Google’s services, though I do use an Android device. I think my most used service is Drive. I haven’t seen it on there.
I accidentally clicked on their stupid popup one time and then got emails over and over welcoming me to Gemini. I don’t even have Google assistant installed.
Gemini ‘messaged’ me in google messages introducing itself a couple months ago. Just appeared like a normal text conversation with any other contact, but as soon as you click on it you’re presented with a wall of T&Cs.
Deleted the ‘conversation’ and it’s stayed gone; though there’s an option for it in settings.
The only other place I’ve see it is an on-screen reminder every time I use Google Assistant. (usually just triggering home automatons)
That’s why.
I don’t use Google messages, don’t use the Google Assistant… am barely aware that Gemini exists.
My job uses the Google suite and it feels like it’s gotten a bit excessive recently. Just this week I have gotten multiple popups on my work email and in Docs and Sheets. It has been present in Chat for a few months.
Interesting. I don’t use Gmail (unless I have to) or the Google office suite. Makes sense.
Same here tbh. I havea university google suite account and I’ve never noticed it there. I also use Google messages, and there was a button for it by default, but it was easily disabled.
They “remind me” every time I use assistant on my phone with an on screen message. But that’s about it and though I find it annoying I don’t feel forced.
My power button on my phone now opens Gemini… Every damn time it’s bumped. Press to wake the phone? Oh hello Gemini
Well that is annoying, but doesn’t sound like the expected behaviour of the power button. A long press, maybe, but just pressing it shouldn’t do that.
When AI appeared in my android text messaging app was the day I relented and installed GrapheneOS. Between Graphene and Bazzite on laptop/desktop, and NixOS for homelab/self hosted tools,.couldn’t be happier to be free from all big tech BS while still getting tech benefits on my own terms
All of it is. Or pushing copilot into all Microsoft products like anyone is using this shit.
Every time I’ve opened an Office app this week it has given me some copilot welcome screen and opened it’s own sidebar. I tried to use it to proofread a word doc and got prompted to purchase a license. So they basically just filled 1/3 of my screen with an ad.
Problem with Gemini is that is sucks badly in comparison with more mature solutions.
It really is terrible. I’ve tried a dozen times to get it to do anything that the free version of GPT can do…fails every time on the few things it even tries.
Wanted to say it feels like Microsoft doing same thing with Copilot, but at least you can disable that. At least on enterprise plans, home / small business apperently is a different story now.
I wasn’t able to disable Copilot in Office without threatening to cancel via my account management page. It’s only then that they give you the option to fall back to the originally priced plan that specifically doesn’t include Copilot. And even after that, Copilot apparently won’t be removed from my locally installed copies of the Office apps until my plan renewal date in April! I’m pretty sure I’m gonna use the time to transition all my documents to LibreOffice and fully cancel my MS Office plan before it renews.
