Welcome to the latest installment of my series of posts to help you tame or disable AI on a variety of platforms. Today we’ll look at AI platforms found on smartphones and tablets.
[Pre-pub edit: since this article was written, Google has announced it will retire Google Assistant by the end of the year. If you still want a digital assistant on a non-Samsung Android phone after that, Gemini will be the only choice.]
iPhones
Gemini for iPhone (Google App)
If you use the Google app on your iPhone, Google Gemini may be turned on. To change that:
- Open the Google app on your iPhone
- Tap your profile picture in the top right corner
- Go to Settings and select General
- Find the AI features option and toggle it off.
Apple Intelligence
We have created a separate post about disabling Apple Intelligence on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Samsung Galaxy
Galaxy AI
To turn off AI for individual services:
- Go to Settings
- Tap Galaxy AI
- Select the service you want to disable
- Tap the toggle to off
You’ll see a list of the services that form Galaxy AI. You can choose the apps for which you want to turn AI on or off.
If you’re more privacy-minded but still want to take advantage of Galaxy AI features, use the toggle at the bottom of this screen. It will limit AI from sending anything to the cloud, and it will keep data processing on your device only. Caveat – going for this option will disable some AI features altogether that require the internet to process, and results may be less useful.
Bixby
Bixby, the Samsung digital assistant you may not even realize is on your phone, is something you will want to disable if you’re trying to tame the AI on your Galaxy device.
Luckily, Samsung has a way for you to replace Bixby with another voice assistant of your choosing. Google Assistant is probably your best bet for now, even if it will eventually be replaced by Google’s advanced AI assistant.
It’s likely already installed on your phone, but you might need to redownload the Google app if you uninstalled it before or never had it.
- Go to Settings
- Tap Apps
- Tap Default apps
- Tap Digital assistant app
- Tap Google
That’s it. When you trigger your voice assistant, you’ll be greeted by Google Assistant instead of the AI-powered Bixby.
Android
Some of the methods for quieting AI on a non-Samsung Android have already been covered in my earlier Google Gemini post. Beyond the account-based changes outlined in that post, three main settings will help manage AI on your phone.
Switching from Gemini to Google Assistant
You can switch to using Google Assistant as your primary assistant on your phone or tablet in your settings. To do this:
- Open the Gemini app.
- Tap your profile picture > Settings.
- Scroll down and choose Digital Assistants from Google.
- Select Google Assistant or turn off both
Turning Off Gemini in Google Messages
Here is a way to disable Gemini in the default text messaging app on Android phones.
- Open the Messages app.
- Tap the Profile Icon > Messages Settings.
- Find and toggle off Show Gemini button.
Disabling Gemini Apps Activity
Perhaps you’d like to use AI on your phone, but you are concerned about privacy. This setting is supposed to stop Google from collecting information about your activity through the Gemini app.
- Go to gemini.google.com on your Android device.
- Tap Menu (three horizontal lines) > Activity.
- Select Turn off or Turn off and delete activity.
Note: Even with Gemini Apps Activity turned off, conversations are saved for up to 72 hours for service improvement and feedback processing.
Summary
Given the amount of time we spend on our phones, it’s important to make the experience less annoying. If you’re someone who isn’t a big fan of AI, I hope this article has offered some helpful tips to improve your phone user experience.
If you are interested in reining in AI on other platforms, see our other posts on taming AI.
