Google Gemini is about to control your messages and calls, even if you say no
50 comments
·June 29, 2025sebtron
kotaKat
It’s assault by Google, as usual.
Some engineer probably finally got a little too much mace on a date and had to accept a “no” for once.
rzzzt
They might change the "no" to "maybe later" later.
JimDabell
This is a ridiculous article. There is a setting that lets Gemini learn from your data. This is not a setting to control whether Gemini can access your messages at all. Switching that setting off is not saying no to letting it control your messages and calls. It’s saying no to letting it learn from them. There is another setting you can use to disable access entirely.
greatgib
I got the notification from Google about that and that made me think that they really are now a bunch of assholes with a top big joint monopoly with Apple.
The notification indeed says that even if you turned everything off, they will allow themselves in your messages, especially WhatsApp messages that are not normally part of Google or Android. And even if it looks like that the option to disable that exist, they don't tell you about that in the notification. It looks like that you have no choice.
To be clear, what I mean by that is that they only say: If you don’t want to use these features, you can turn them off in the Apps settings page.
But what it means "in the Apps" settings page? Does it means a settings in each individual app that my prostitute itself to Gemini?and if yes, which exact apps should I go to, to do this manual process that I don't asked for?
p1anecrazy
Clickbait.
> Gemini now has a second set of toggles buried in its settings menu. You can go to Profile → Apps inside the Gemini app and manually disable access to Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, or Utilities. But these are turned on by default, even if you’ve disabled tracking in the past.
genman
Perhaps exaggerated, but the point remains - saying No has been made considerably harder for a regular user.
ffsm8
i strongly disagree with p1anecrazy original claim that this was clickbait.
I wouldn't even call that exaggerated whatsoever given these circumstances. If you say no, it still has access to them. the headline in no way claims that there is no way to disable access (likely temporarily) - it just says that if you disabled access before, gemini will still get access now.
> But these are turned on by default, even if you’ve disabled tracking in the past.
ttctciyf
Can we say "enshAItification"?
resoluteteeth
Right now if activity tracking is off I think you can't even use Gemini to do stuff like set alarms so it's worse than Google Assistant with activity tracking off.
Since Google Assistant is going away I think this is an improvement for people who want to keep activity tracking off.
It would also be better if you could create calendar events from the web version of Gemini with activity tracking off so you aren't punished for not letting Google train Gemini on your data imo.
justoreply
I have "App activity" off, so everything is already off by default
underdeserver
Sounds sus. Did anyone here get this notification?
mdhb
How the fuck is this going to fly in Europe with the data privacy laws?
nolok
Some sort of "stay on device" thing, the way Samsung already does with the (terrible) bixby and (sorta better) galaxy ai ?
They're fine with the few opt out and degraded service to them, their goal is the vast majority who will say yes.
genman
It looks like people need a new legislation to protect against such abuses.
BiteCode_dev
You can't use gemini if you are not logged in into a google account.
This is one more good reason to never sign in on your android phone.
It's not as good as using graphene, but it's easier, less work, and you can't brick your phone.
The drawback, of course, is that you can't use your map, youtube or gmail account since signing in in any of those logs in the entire device.
But with microg, fdroid and aurora, it's very practical.
askl
How about just not having the Gemini app installed?
That seems even easier to do and also lets you continue using the actually useful google products.
surgical_fire
That's how I solved it so far.
That will only work until Google makes it impossible to uninstall.
frabcus
Presumably you can use them all in a browser?
Weird that you can even say "no". Usually the options are "yes" and "keep asking this until I click yes by accident".