Google Permanently Discontinues Super Convenient Feature
In what amounts to nothing short of perplexing, Google has permanently discontinued one of its most popular features.
This article is more than 2 years old
There’s not a person that uses a computer who doesn’t excessively utilize Google Search. But for many, the tech company’s products like Drive and Gmail are just as imperative. Today, to the dismay of many, Google is losing one of its essential additional features. It is highly unexpected, and for unknown reasons, but Google Assistant is removing its location-based reminder settings. This has led to much frustration from loyal users, who rely on these reminders as a crucial part of the Google function.
The first function that was abandoned from Google is location-based reminders. These were undeniably helpful and a remarkable advancement of modern technology, where Google could inform you about a task based on the time and location. Reminders like doing your dishes when you get home were standard tasks that Google Assistant could perform. Your phone would make noise when you arrived home due to the phone’s tracking device, letting you know about the job you wanted to complete. You could also program Google Assistant to remind you to buy certain things at Target, Walmart, the grocery store, etc. Currently, Google Assistant has lost location-based reminders, and the company has not issued a reason why.
The company is now sending out notifications to people who’ve used the function to let them know that the feature is going away. The message does let users know that general reminder will still exist, including setting routines for specific locations. But reminders based on location will no longer be available on Google devices. Many have expressed frustration with establishing a routine instead of a location-based notification. A routine is a regular reminder that triggers an alarm instead of a one-time ping from a message, which is an entirely different function.
There’s another function being discarded from Google, but this feature was way less popular. The feature was announced back in 2019 and was an exciting and slightly beguiling concept. The function allowed people to set reminders for other people, but with a few caveats. First, you could only set reminders for members of your Google “Family,” which is somebody who was in your family link or shared an Assistant-enabled device with. Google Family was mainly invented for actual families to make parental settings for their kids and combine online storage. But many expanded the family link to roommates, partners, and other types of interpersonal relationships. Setting reminders for other people in your Google plan was a function that wasn’t consistently used, which is probably the reason for its discontinuation.
Unlike setting reminders for other people, the location-based reminder was a popular feature. This has confused many avid users about why the company has decided to eliminate a necessary Google Assistant function. With more general concern around location tracking, it could be a response to climbing anxiety regarding tech and surveillance. People have also speculated that the location reminders didn’t have a designated section like Google Calendar or Google Drive, which may have led to internal technical issues.
For those who highly rely on Google Assistant’s location-based reminders, one could use a few alternatives to alleviate the problem. But unfortunately, there’s nothing remaining at the tech company that’s as intuitive or hands-off as this discontinued function.
