Is Gemini going to kill the Play Store and Android apps?

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Ilia Temelkov
Ilia Temelkov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 6mo ago

It might not have been a surprise, but the Gemini AI chatbot was the star of the show at Google’s annual developer conference this week. The quick summary is that the company plans to integrate AI into every product it offers to consumers. This will turn Gemini into a specialized digital assistant with access to many of Google’s services, like Gmail, Calendar and Search.


Among the demos Google showed at I/O were mundane things like adding the products of a recipe to a shopping list in Keep, planning the return of a product and creating the itinerary for a complete family vacation. As impressive as this may look, it raises questions about the future of apps, at least in the shape we know them today.


If tasks like planning a vacation, returning a product to its seller, and going through emails, schedules or lengthy PDF documents require only a quick conversation with a chatbot, would we even need the apps? If we stop needing apps, what will happen with the Play Store? Do you think chatbots will bring the end of the app era? What apps could never be replaced by a chatbot? Would you prefer a conversational interface for your smartphone instead of the current screen-centric approach?

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Mariyan Slavov
Mariyan Slavov
Phonearena team
• 6mo ago

The Play Store has 3.5 million apps in it. Gemini is integrated with about 5 of them. There's your answer. Another thing, voice interface is one of the slowest ways of transferring information. I can do three times more with my fingers than by forming words with my vocal chords. That's why no one ever controls anything with their voice and keyboards and mice are still around.

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TheRealDuckofDeath
TheRealDuckofDeath
Arena Master
• 6mo ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

The Play Store has 3.5 million apps in it. Gemini is integrated with about 5 of them. There's your answer. Another thing, voice interface is one of the slowest ways of transferring information. I can do three times more with my fingers than by forming words with my vocal chords. That's why no one ever controls anything with their voice and keyboards and mice are still around.

I agree it's highly unlikely where we are today. But, if we are playing the unlimited AI capabilities game, AI will definitely replace it all. Well, maybe not some media or entertainment.


You can type three times faster than you speak. Slightly exaggerated, as you'd have to be a world class stenographer to get close to that. Or a very slow speaker. But even so, AI isn't a secretary. AI is AI. Which means, once it is working as intended, you'll only have to say really short things to get a full trilogy sequel to Ulysses delivered by post the next day and a movie adaptation ready at the cinema.


We're nowhere near that yet, but it is already quite good at fixing our creative limitations and laziness. Just ask all students around the world.


Why go through finding and learning to use all sorts of apps, learn all the changes they force on you every year, when one can do it all for you?

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IT-Engineer
IT-Engineer
Arena Apprentice
• 6mo ago
↵TheRealDuckofDeath said:

I agree it's highly unlikely where we are today. But, if we are playing the unlimited AI capabilities game, AI will definitely replace it all. Well, maybe not some media or entertainment.


You can type three times faster than you speak. Slightly exaggerated, as you'd have to be a world class stenographer to get close to that. Or a very slow speaker. But even so, AI isn't a secretary. AI is AI. Which means, once it is working as intended, you'll only have to say really short things to get a full trilogy sequel to Ulysses delivered by post the next day and a movie adaptation ready at the cinema.


We're nowhere near that yet, but it is already quite good at fixing our creative limitations and laziness. Just ask all students around the world.


Why go through finding and learning to use all sorts of apps, learn all the changes they force on you every year, when one can do it all for you?

It might replace many of the mundane apps, but not games and streaming services apps, unless AI integrates with streaming services.

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TheRealDuckofDeath
TheRealDuckofDeath
Arena Master
• 6mo ago
↵IT-Engineer said:

It might replace many of the mundane apps, but not games and streaming services apps, unless AI integrates with streaming services.

In my defence, that is exactly what I said 😋

"Well, maybe not some media or entertainment."


At some point, accuracy in fake imagery and creativity for game design will also be done better by AI. Probably not for a very long time, but we're moving a lot faster towards it than most people notice. You can use AI to generate quite complex and hyper realistic videos already. You can also use AI to create code for anything. It's still all based on required input from people, but that won't always be the case.

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IT-Engineer
IT-Engineer
Arena Apprentice
• 6mo ago
↵TheRealDuckofDeath said:

In my defence, that is exactly what I said 😋

"Well, maybe not some media or entertainment."


At some point, accuracy in fake imagery and creativity for game design will also be done better by AI. Probably not for a very long time, but we're moving a lot faster towards it than most people notice. You can use AI to generate quite complex and hyper realistic videos already. You can also use AI to create code for anything. It's still all based on required input from people, but that won't always be the case.

True.


I've been using Chatgpt plus for my work for the past year. It's a great time saviour when you give it your correct specific query(input).

I also use it for documentation for software architecture , it's a saved me hundreds of hours! Of course you have to double check everything, but still.

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ptsenter
ptsenter
Arena Apprentice
• 6mo ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

The Play Store has 3.5 million apps in it. Gemini is integrated with about 5 of them. There's your answer. Another thing, voice interface is one of the slowest ways of transferring information. I can do three times more with my fingers than by forming words with my vocal chords. That's why no one ever controls anything with their voice and keyboards and mice are still around.

That's not an answer. At least, I'm pretty sure, it's not "your" answer. You're just playing devil's advocate for the sake of conversation keeping on going. Which is alright, I'll play.

It's not a matter of integrating but replacing: how many apps is going to be replaced with one integrated - hundreds, thousands,... It's possible.

And out of 3.5 million how many are really unique and useful? Most are duplicates and/or totally useless.

In a matter of interface: I don't believe voice input intended to replace keyboard+mouse, but just being complimentary. I don't want to talk to my phone in a crowded place not to interfere with somebody else conversation and not to divulge my info.

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trakk8
trakk8
Arena Master
• 6mo agoedited

Gemini is not going to kill android apps and play store, GEMINI WILL BECOME ANDROID OS ITSELF.


When I saw rabbit device and rabbit os in play I thought this will be the future direction of android.

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Ilia Temelkov
Ilia Temelkov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 5mo ago
↵trakk8 said:

Gemini is not going to kill android apps and play store, GEMINI WILL BECOME ANDROID OS ITSELF.


When I saw rabbit device and rabbit os in play I thought this will be the future direction of android.

The “Gemini will become Android OS itself” is the take I like the most (sans the shouting 🤭). Of course, there will always be some sort of apps, especially if we consider things such games to be apps, but new methods of interaction with “computers” will be a big part of the not-so-far-future. Even if we don’t want to use voice, a bunch of shortcuts, activating certain APIs can do the vast majority of mundane tasks that now take a few taps.

What will not be gone and it will keep apps in some shape are visual interfaces. Navigation, without the option to see a map, will be weird for many, but if an AI can parse the best options for plane tickets and spares me the digging, I’d be very happy. Well, when I’ll trust it with such a task is a very different question.

Apparently, the current app market is under risk, so maybe the more appropriate question is what are the apps of the future going to look like.

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trakk8
trakk8
Arena Master
• 5mo ago

Sorry, I was not shouting, I was trying to highlight those words. Where i come from writing in capital letters means emphasising those words.


But i realized a day late that it could be perceived as shouting in America (as I read somewhere before that caps means shouting but totally forgot about it) but then it was already too late to edit it.

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