How to turn off Gemini on Android — and why you should | Proton
proton.me
Learn how to turn off Gemini on Android, what the Google AI can see, its privacy risks, and how to limit its reach across your device.

Google is quietly rolling out its Gemini AI tool as the default assistant on Android, even on devices where users never explicitly enabled it. In many cases, Gemini replaces Google Assistant by default, making it increasingly challenging to disable fully.

This deep integration means Gemini can still be active in the background, accessing your apps, system features, and personal info.

Here’s what Gemini can access:

Gmail 
Google Calendar 
Google Drive & Docs 
Maps, Keep, Tasks
Messages, Phone, and even WhatsApp

Even more concerning:

Your data is used to train Google’s AI.
Human reviewers may see your chats.
Data can be shared with 3rd parties.
As of July 2025, Gemini stays connected to apps even when activity tracking is turned off.

🛑 You can’t fully disable Gemini, but you can limit it:

How to limit Gemini on Android:

Turn off activity tracking
Revoke permissions
Uninstall it (if possible)

Further options, if you’re privacy-conscious:

Reduce your reliance on Google services or fully de-Google
Consider a privacy-first OS like GrapheneOS or CalyxOS

⚠️ Google is making Gemini the default assistant for all Android devices by the end of 2025.

Choose privacy over AI surveillance.

If you want tools that respect your data, ensure you use encrypted email, a private calendar, and a secure cloud, with no AI training or human review.

    • cole@lemdro.idEnglish
      5·
      8 hours ago

      You can technically put PostmarketOS on a wide variety of devices, but it isn’t a “pure” Linux experience, since it is using the same proprietary blobs as the vendor to get all the hardware working.

      Depends how anal you want to be

      • Sabata@ani.socialEnglish
        2·
        7 hours ago

        Been keeping an eye on it, but looks like it would break my current phone :(

        • cole@lemdro.idEnglish
          3·
          6 hours ago

          There’s the rub :/

          I’m waiting too dude, I’m waiting too

  • Mark@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    16 hours ago

    I am soooo happy with my Fairphone 6 running /e/OS (no more google)

    It’s like a warm bed of privacy.

  • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
    15·
    1 day ago

    Google has always harvested data. Which I’m generally not a fan of and try to keep as much of it as private as I can. But this whole Gemini thing is egregious. The one and only thing I ever use Google Assistant for his voice commands for home automation. I really need to set up the built-in one for home assistant etc. And Gemini has been absolutely fail-tastic when it comes to taking over those duties. I’ve had to disable it on a number of family devices which suddenly stopped being able to work with a few of the smart home devices around the house.

    Going forward I’m heavily investing in matter/threads. The day I can have everything handled locally and not need to rely on proprietary constantly enshitifying bullshit. That will be a great day indeed.

      • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
        4·
        22 hours ago

        Oh absolutely. I’ve already run it for years with a mixed hodgepodge of zigbee Z-Wave and Wi-Fi devices. The problem is that many still phone home to somewhere. I definitely want to get everything down to matter and threads on my local ha as much as possible.

        Was looking at good options the other day for a thread border router. My father was an ESP based option. Though not the ubiquitous cheat esp32s

    • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      310·
      20 hours ago

      Google has plans for killing linage and graphene too.

      Apple has its faults but they are practically Jesus Christ compared to Google.

        • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          21·
          8 hours ago

          Well, one of the reasons Siri sucks so terribly is Apple refused to do the mass surveillance data scraping google was doing, so they didn’t have enormous data sets to train Siri on. Second, Apple lets you turn their AI functions on and off system-wide with a simple toggle, where as google lets to chip away at gemini but never actually turn it off.

      • Nath@aussie.zoneEnglish
        5·
        17 hours ago

        I’m not about to defend Google, but I think Apple are worse. Google are upfront about what they collect and let you download (takeout) or delete everything they have on you at any time you want.

        Apple don’t tell you what they are collecting, don’t let you opt-out of data collection and it’s a manual process to access/delete what they have on you.

        Neither company is good on their privacy fronts and to champion one over the other is silly.

  • fluxion@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    23 hours ago

    This POS app turned on by itself 4 times during a 20 minute drive yesterday because of the bluetooth audio playing through my car speakers. Assistant never did that shit.