What you should know
- Google is planning to replace the Assistant moniker with Bard for its new digital assistant, which is set to launch later this year.
- The name change was discovered by 9to5google, who found that the greeting screen and most mentions of “Assistant with Bard” in the Google app have been changed to just “Bard”.
- Bard is currently an “experimental AI assistant”, implying it may not initially have all the features that Google Assistant offers.
- Despite this, Google appears committed to transitioning Bard from an experimental status to a stable one, and may add more features over time.
Full Story
So, here’s the scoop. Google’s got a new digital assistant in the works, set to launch later this year. It’s been under the name “Assistant with Bard” since its unveiling back in October at the Pixel 8 event. But here’s the twist – they’re thinking about dropping the “Assistant” part and just calling it “Bard.”
The folks over at 9to5google have been doing some digging. They’ve decompiled the latest version of the Google app and found some interesting changes. The greeting screen’s been switched up from “Hi! I’m Assistant with Bard” to a simple “Hi! I’m Bard.”
But that’s not all. Almost every mention of “Assistant with Bard” has been replaced with just “Bard.” And since Google’s now referring to Bard as a digital assistant, not another version of Assistant, it’s pretty clear they’re going for a rebrand.
(Credits – 9to5google)
Here’s where it gets tricky. Bard’s still tagged as an “experimental AI assistant.” On the other hand, Google Assistant is a well-established product, constantly being updated. So, why the sudden change?
Last week, Google decided to drop a bunch of good Assistant features. It’s likely this was a necessary step before completely replacing Assistant with Bard. This suggests that Bard might not come with all the bells and whistles that Assistant offered.
Sure, Google might promise to add many of them over time. But let’s be real, it’s going to take a while before Bard moves from being “experimental” to “stable.” But hey, it looks like Google is determined to make it work.
