Google’s Gemini is ready to become a proper AI assistant

Gemini is to start offering Proactive Assistance

Summary created by Smart Answers AI

In summary:

• Tech Advisor reports that Google Gemini is launching new ‘Memories’ and Proactive Assistance features in the UK, transforming it into a more personalized AI assistant.
• These features enable Gemini to learn from past conversations and provide tailored suggestions like birthday themes or book recommendations without explicit user requests.
• All data processing occurs securely on-device with encryption, while users maintain full control over app permissions and can easily manage or disable these features.

Google is taking its Gemini AI assistant a step further with Proactive Assistance, which will proffer helpful information without you needing to request it.

The company recently rolled out its Personal Intelligence upgrade, which moves beyond the ‘glorified web search’ of current AI assistants to actually delving into your most used services for a more personalised experience.

Now the next phase of Google’s AI ambitions has manifested, and it’s called Proactive Assistance.

While digging through the latest version of the Google app, Android Authority discovered Proactive Assistance. From the screen grabs it managed to obtain, it seems this feature will allow you to “Get personalised suggestions at the right time”.

It does so by pulling from three main sources of information: what’s currently on your screen, your notifications, and the data from apps (provided you’ve provided the appropriate permissions).

It’ll then be able to provide reminders, insights and contextual actions at an appropriate time, when they’re likely to be the most useful.

You can select which apps Google is able to reference for this service, such as Contacts and Messages. Any data that’s crunched for Proactive Assistance will be done entirely on the device in an encrypted environment.

There’s no indication when we might see this Proactive Assistance rolling out to end users, but it seems as if it’s already in a close-to-finished state. Watch this space.

Memories comes to the UK

In separate Gemini news, Google has shared the fact that its Memories feature is now rolling out in the UK.

This Gemini setting allows Gemini to learn from previous conversations you’ve had with the assistant, recalling your preferences and interests to provide more personalised results.

One example that Google gives is if you’ve expressed your love for a certain comic book character, which will subsequently prompt Gemini to suggest related birthday party themes or gift ideas.

It can also take any book preferences you’ve previously expressed to provide tailored book recommendations.

Memories is on by default in Gemini, but you can turn it off in the Settings menu of the Gemini app – just head to Personal context > Memory. It’s also possible to manage and delete your conversations in Gemini Apps Activity.

It’s even possible to import memories from other AI apps. Just head into Settings and select the new import option to generate a prompt that can be copied and ingested into Gemini.

You can also upload a ZIP file of your chat history from other AI providers, which Gemini will absorb and utilise with future recommendations.