In the case of my fully updated pixel 9 pro XL, Gemini was installed from the factory. I uninstalled it and installed Google Assistant. It has not re-installed itself for me, and further, I would recommend that if you don't use Gemini, you uninstall it.

This may change once the July patch hits but. As of right now it's not currently installed.

Yes, but the phones of all your peers will have that shit on them.

In my case (Galaxy S21) I can only disable it, not uninstall.

The people you're messaging might, though.

Good that I don't do any updates apart from some apps.

It was bundled as part of either a system or security update.

This is brilliant, I dedicate that to "updates good" crowd.

If your phone is unaltered in any way, absolutely nothing you do on it is private, even turned off.

Sweating over one app when your entire phone is the posterboy for spyware? lol

edit: "nice downvotes!" ~ Google

Same, but somehow there was a warning and a possibility to switch back to Google assistant instead, which I did

I don't even have a Gemini app installed in the first place.

Me on my de-googled phone:

For those on Pixel devices, check out GrapheneOS. If not CalyxOS or LineageOS

Its important that we have devices that we control. If your phone doesn't allow bootloader unlock so you can install a different operating system, that's a problem. Claims that security is compromised if bootloaders can be unlocked are just companies using a convenient excuse to maintain control over a device you paid for.

I'm rather confused. I don't have any app called Gemini installed, but despite this "Hey Google" brings up Gemini. So I have no app to disable, and no way to turn off interaction with other apps. This is on a Samsung A55 in Europe, happily taking advice on how to proceed.

Pro tip: you can probably uninstall Gemini via ADB. Android won't let you uninstall it using your phone's UI, but since it's just another package you can probably use the old ADB tricks to wipe it from your phone. Use your favorite search engine to figure out how, it's not exactly a secret.

I have stock android on a pixel and was able to just uninstall it. So it's not all devices at least

Yeah, and it's presumptious of them to access the WhatsApp account I don't have...

Cool, the app that doesn't exist on my phone will access an account I don't have. I've never used WhatsApp and I don't plan to start now.

Why are you being downvoted for this? In stock devices the user has no way to even start looking at what is being run. All you can do is trust the manufacturer.

My four year old low-end test device running Android had its assistant switched out from Google Assistant to Gemini. I was very surprised since I'd assumed that the vendor had stopped supporting it since it was so cheap, but it updated anyway.

Installed automatically on latest android version, can't be uninstalled

Google Play is separate from Android. Google likely updates it through that route, rather than relying on manufacturers.