I Fired Google
Many commenters describe how Google’s shift to Gemini has made voice assistants like Google Home and Android Auto slower, more verbose, less reliable, and harder to interrupt, undermining once-simple tasks such as timers, music playback, and navigation. They see similar “enshittification” in Amazon Alexa and on ad-heavy websites, arguing that attempts to upsell features and integrate large language models have degraded core functionality while increasing user frustration and surveillance concerns. A minority still find value in tightly scoped uses (music, weather, alarms) or in building local, self-hosted assistants as an alternative to big tech ecosystems.
Overall sentiment on Google Home / Gemini
- Many report a sharp decline in usefulness since the shift to Gemini and recent “upgrades.”
- Complaints: excessive verbosity, multiple follow‑up questions to simple queries, difficulty interrupting it, and inconsistent behavior.
- Previously deterministic commands (music selection, calls, timers, navigation) now often produce wrong or random results, sometimes requiring multiple corrections.
- Quality is described as fluctuating over time, with some suspecting cost throttling; others just say “it sucks.”
- A minority like the new Gemini-based Google Home, calling the old version “lobotomized” by comparison.
Voice assistants in general (Google, Alexa, Siri)
- Common core use cases: music, weather, timers, alarms, simple reminders, smart lights; many say assistants peaked years ago for these basics.
- Attempts to make them “smarter” are widely seen as making core flows worse: upselling features, ad surfaces, long explanations, “engagement” prompts.
- Alexa and Echo devices are criticized for unsolicited “by the way” tips and even display ads; some users abandoned them entirely, though one notes a voice command to disable that behavior.
- Siri and other assistants are perceived as having regressed from earlier, more deterministic intent systems.
- Lack of documentation and discoverability of advanced commands is a major frustration; some would happily learn a “verbal DSL” but can’t.
Alternatives and workarounds
- Some users are going “as analog as possible”: mechanical timers, no assistants.
- Others move between big ecosystems (Google → Alexa), while critics argue this just swaps one problematic megacorp for another.
- A few are building local, privacy‑preserving systems: wake‑word devices tied to local LLMs, custom APIs, and self‑hosted smart home setups.
Privacy, control, and surveillance
- Concerns raised about 24/7 audio collection and lack of clear data‑control options, especially with Gemini training on user chats.
- Some describe fully “firing” Google (search, mail, photos, etc.) in favor of privacy‑focused or self‑hosted alternatives.
Critique of the article/site and broader context
- Multiple comments slam the article’s site for aggressive ads, pop‑ups, and anti–ad‑block behavior, calling it an example of the very “enshittification” it criticizes.
- Several note the writing style resembles LLM‑generated text (repetitions, dramatic cadence).
- Others see the piece as significant because it comes from a mainstream, non‑tech blog—evidence that “regular” users are now fed up with Google’s direction.