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.

Because it's worth plugging up some privacy holes even if you can't get all of them. Google already knows my name, address, and phone number, but that's no reason to let 5th Edition Character Sheet learn it too. They already have gigabytes of personally identifiable data on me, doesn't mean I'm cool with them bumping that up to terabytes

The whole reason GrapheneOS develops only for Pixels is that you can relock the bootloader though, right? (Along with other security features)

Anyway yeah companies still suck for not letting you relock them.

It keeps changing back to Gemini on its own for me even if I don't use the assistant at all.

I don't believe that's a pixel specific benefit but yes relocking the bootloader is best for security. The unlocking process is needed to install an alternative OS though.

Or if you prefer GUI on device apps, Shizuku and then use Cantata

In my case it doesnt appear in the App drawer but when I opened assistant it offered me switching to Gemini, which I did. Then within it, went to Apps to disable integrations like WhatsApp which by default was ON. Same with SMS and others.

I got a privacy update for Gmail tools too. It used to be to enable smart tools you needed to allow google to read your email. That does stuff like automatically add calendar events for flights and such.

Now you must also allow the email to be read by their AI services too. I can’t recall precisely how it was worded, but it was an easy decision to keep the “smart” features off.

I mean, I really just use Gmail as the email address I give to sign up for sites and such, but would be good just not to have it one day.

Not that I support this, but hasn't Google Assistant been able to do that for years? Sending texts via the voice assistant has been, like, one of the main selling points.

I hope so considering I talk to others who will have Android phones with Google on it.

And to want to access my calendars to book appointments for flights I can't afford

Pixel has a built in feature that screens my calls and sends spammers to a bot. Graphene has no equivalent to this.