You Can Now Replace Google Assistant With Microsoft’s Copilot AI
A few weeks ago, Google rebranded its artificial intelligence platform Bard, which is now known as Gemini. Apart from some additional service options like Gemini Advanced , the company also coincidentally announced that you can now replace Google Assistant on your Android with Gemini .
It’s not a perfect trade-off: while Gemini can offer a lot of useful AI features as your digital assistant, it can’t do some basic Google Assistant tasks like accessing your calendar, so it might not be ready for prime use just yet. half. However, if you’re interested in testing out an AI bot as your smartphone assistant, you’re out of luck: you now have another AAA AI option in Microsoft Copilot .
In the latest beta update to the Copilot app, Microsoft has included the ability to set Copilot as your default assistant . Once you do this, you will be able to activate Copilot by long pressing the power button. However, the implementation is currently far from ideal. As Mishaal Rahman reports on X (formerly Twitter), activating the assistant simply triggers the Copilot action, rather than displaying Copilot on the screen like a typical digital assistant. Plus, you can’t activate Copilot with your voice (so don’t even try to say “Hey, co-pilot”).
Rahman suggests that Microsoft could work on this integration, and I agree; After all, this feature is currently only available in beta, and Microsoft has a lot of work to do before releasing it to the general public.
How to make Copilot your assistant on Android
If you want to try out Copilot as your assistant, even in its current limited form, you’ll first need to access the beta version of the Copilot app. Luckily, it’s quite simple: go to Copilot’s Play Store page , then scroll down and click “Join” under “Join Beta.” Click “Join” in the pop-up window. Next, make sure you have the latest version of the Copilot app.
Once everything is set, go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Digital Assistant App , then tap Default Digital Assistant App and select Copilot . It’s worth noting that I don’t currently see this option on my end, even as a Copilot beta tester, so Microsoft may be slow to release this update.