Gemini for Android finally gets my most-missed feature

One of the most frustrating omissions of the Gemini voice assistant on Android has been the inability to set reminders. It was a glaring issue for me and many other users at launch that I think underscored how Gemini as a voice assistant wasn’t quite ready for the spotlight. Thankfully though, Google’s Gemini team kept their promise of addressing this “ASAP” and reminders are finally starting to roll out.

A recent Reddit thread confirmed the feature’s arrival (via Android Police), and it appears to be working on some accounts and devices. While the rollout seems to be in its early stages, I think this is a significant step forward for the Gemini digital assistant and I couldn’t be happier. I have been trying to test out the Gemini assistant on my Pixel 8 but a lack of reminders has been driving me crazy, forcing me to go find a smart speaker/display with the old Assistant any time I wanted to set a reminder. And on my commute (normally a time when I set several reminders) I’m been basically out of luck and have to just hope that I remember things when I get to the office, which normally doesn’t happen. So I’m thrilled to have reminders back!

How Gemini Reminders Work

Setting reminders with Gemini on your Android device works just like you’d expect. Just ask Gemini, “Set a reminder to pick up my eggs at 5 PM today” and then you’ll get a notification at that time with your reminder. Interestingly though, Gemini still relies on the Google Assistant to get this done. It looks like Gemini hands the task off to Assistant as part of an extension, and your reminders are managed through Google Tasks. If you have the Tasks app, notifications come from there; otherwise, Google Calendar will take care of them. You can even ask, “Show me my reminders” to see a list view of your upcoming reminders.

I have been able to get Reminders on Android working on two different accounts by upgrading to Gemini Advanced. And upgrading is easy since Google is currently offering a two-month trial for anyone who wants to try out Advanced. So if reminders are not working on your account, you can essentially upgrade to Advanced for free. Then with reminders back in action, you can set a reminder to check on your subscription a day before the renewal date to decide if you want to keep it or not. Bam!

As for other promised fixes, Gemini’s product lead, Jack Krawczyk, has indicated that Routine support is a high priority so hopefully, this means more features will arrive soon. For now, the addition of reminders is a good sign that Google is committed to developing Gemini into a full-fledged assistant. Until then, some of you might want to switch back to the old Assistant until Google gets the kinks worked out with Gemini.