Gemini continues pushing out Google Assistant in a steady rebrand effort

What you need to know

• The familiar “Hey Google & Voice Match” settings page in the Gemini app is being renamed to “Talk to Gemini hands-free.”
• The latest Gemini app update shows Assistant labels being replaced with Gemini throughout the wake-word setup flow.
• Expect more rebrands as March 2026 approaches, with Assistant’s name disappearing from more menus across Android.

The classic Google Assistant branding continues inching closer to its terminus, and Google is ruthlessly scrubbing the brand name from more places across the Android interface to hasten that.

Google is quietly rewriting one of the most familiar parts of Android: the place where you turn “Hey Google” on and off. First spotted by Android Authority, the Gemini app’s settings are being reworked so the old “Hey Google & Voice Match” section will soon be called “Talk to Gemini hands-free."

For years, that screen has screamed Google Assistant. Now, new details found in the latest Gemini app (version 1.0.795460806) show Google replacing the Assistant branding with Gemini in the wake-word setup. You still get the toggle to enable hands-free activation and a separate “Manage Voice Match” page, but the old Assistant label is being pushed out of sight.

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It’s well known that Google is in the process of moving the mobile Assistant experience to Gemini and plans to retire the classic Assistant on most phones in the future.

The function remains the same

Behind the scenes, there’s no sign that Google has made big changes to how voice recognition itself works. You still train a voice model, say “Hey Google,” and the system checks if it’s really you before showing personal results.

What’s different now is that the setup process, header text, and “powered by” lines all refer to Gemini.

For most users, your phone will still listen for “Hey Google,” but everything around that experience will increasingly talk about Gemini. You get the same hands-free controls you’re used to, just wrapped in Google’s new AI branding.

As Assistant nears its demise in March 2026, expect more of this: more menu renames, more Gemini tags where Assistant used to live, and fewer places where you can even see the old name.