{"id":3491679,"date":"2026-08-26T19:37:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/googles-gemini-has-a-branding-problem-and-so-does-the-rest-of-ai\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:37:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:37:34","slug":"googles-gemini-has-a-branding-problem-and-so-does-the-rest-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/googles-gemini-has-a-branding-problem-and-so-does-the-rest-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Gemini has a branding problem, and so does the rest of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

Google gets something right in its Wednesday announcement about new Gemini Live voice features when it says, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have to guess whether a task requires Spark, a Daily Brief, or a quick inbox search.\u201d Google means that as a promise \u2014 that the updated Gemini app can handle a variety of tasks via voice commands. But there\u2019s a ridiculousness here: Google has given every Gemini AI feature under the sun its own branding, which undercuts that very message.<\/p>\n

In the Gemini app, users can switch between chat, Spark, and Daily Brief \u2014 three separate features, each with its own icon and place in the app\u2019s navigation. This clutters up what could otherwise be a more straightforward consumer experience, and it suggests that Gemini is still struggling to find a killer feature.<\/p>\n

Take Daily Brief, for example. The feature comes across as the kind of thing an AI engineer, not an everyday user, would think is clever. It\u2019s essentially an AI-enabled agenda that offers \u201cproactive, personalized updates\u201d using data pulled from Google\u2019s apps, like Gmail and Calendar. In practice, though, the Brief can\u2019t tell the difference between information that\u2019s urgent or actionable and unsolicited nudges to follow up on other things \u2014 like prompting you to continue research you started in the chatbot, or worse, resurfacing your prior Google searches.<\/p>\n

That second part doesn\u2019t feel useful; it feels creepy. So what if I had been researching college scholarships or animal rescues on Google? That doesn\u2019t mean I want an AI tapping me on the shoulder about them later.<\/p>\n

Spark has the opposite problem. It\u2019s one of the more useful aspects of Gemini\u2019s app \u2014 an AI agent that can take action on your behalf \u2014 but Google has packaged it as its own standalone brand, which it doesn\u2019t need to be. Sure, internally, Google engineers may want to be on the Spark team, and that\u2019s fine \u2014 but a mainstream AI app user definitely does not need to think about which \u201cside\u201d of the AI app they need to be in for a given task. They should just be able to type their request, and the AI figures out how to handle it, spinning up an agent if the task calls for one.<\/p>\n

In fairness, the problem isn\u2019t limited to Gemini. The AI industry at large seems to expose its internal architecture directly to consumers rather than hiding it behind a simpler interface. <\/p>\n

Today, people have to think about whether they want to \u201cchat\u201d with Anthropic\u2019s Claude or \u201cCowork\u201d with its help. (Until this week, those two modes inside the Claude app didn\u2019t even share a memory of past conversations.) ChatGPT is the same, requiring you to swap between \u201cChat\u201d and \u201cWork.\u201d This is the kind of engineering-minded design that makes engaging with AI feel unnatural. Consumers are being asked to learn the brand names for what are essentially interaction modes or surfaces, powered by a company\u2019s AI model.<\/p>\n

This may be why Apple\u2019s somewhat anticlimactic approach to Siri could ultimately win over consumers. iPhone and Apple device owners don\u2019t have to change any of their existing behavior to take advantage of it. Apple simply makes the apps and features that people already use \u2014 like Spotlight Search, the Photos app, the iPhone\u2019s Camera, and Siri voice requests \u2014 smarter without asking users to learn a new interface.<\/p>\n

This same principle may explain the rise of text-based AI services, where users simply text a chatbot \u2014 like Poke, Ollie, Lindy, Orchid, Lucas, Folk, Tomo, Instinct, or others \u2014 and the assistant just does what\u2019s asked.<\/p>\n

Text messaging is a clean and simple, well-understood user interface, and it doesn\u2019t require extra mental effort to figure out which feature or product inside a larger app you\u2019re supposed to use. <\/p>\n

As a16z investment partner Justine Moore recently wrote, \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to open an app every time they need help \u2013 they want a contact they can text like a friend. And the gold standard is iMessage.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n
\n

Google gets something right in its Wednesday announcement about new Gemini Live voice features when it says, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have to guess whether a task requires Spark, a Daily Brief, or a quick inbox search.\u201d Google means that as a promise \u2014 that the updated Gemini app can handle a variety of tasks via voice commands. But there\u2019s a ridiculousness here: Google has given every Gemini AI feature under the sun its own branding, which undercuts that very message.<\/p>\n

In the Gemini app, users can switch between chat, Spark, and Daily Brief \u2014 three separate features, each with its own icon and place in the app\u2019s navigation. This clutters up what could otherwise be a more straightforward consumer experience, and it suggests that Gemini is still struggling to find a killer feature.<\/p>\n

Take Daily Brief, for example. The feature comes across as the kind of thing an AI engineer, not an everyday user, would think is clever. It\u2019s essentially an AI-enabled agenda that offers \u201cproactive, personalized updates\u201d using data pulled from Google\u2019s apps, like Gmail and Calendar. In practice, though, the Brief can\u2019t tell the difference between information that\u2019s urgent or actionable and unsolicited nudges to follow up on other things \u2014 like prompting you to continue research you started in the chatbot, or worse, resurfacing your prior Google searches.<\/p>\n

That second part doesn\u2019t feel useful; it feels creepy. So what if I had been researching college scholarships or animal rescues on Google? That doesn\u2019t mean I want an AI tapping me on the shoulder about them later.<\/p>\n

Spark has the opposite problem. It\u2019s one of the more useful aspects of Gemini\u2019s app \u2014 an AI agent that can take action on your behalf \u2014 but Google has packaged it as its own standalone brand, which it doesn\u2019t need to be. Sure, internally, Google engineers may want to be on the Spark team, and that\u2019s fine \u2014 but a mainstream AI app user definitely does not need to think about which \u201cside\u201d of the AI app they need to be in for a given task. They should just be able to type their request, and the AI figures out how to handle it, spinning up an agent if the task calls for one.<\/p>\n

In fairness, the problem isn\u2019t limited to Gemini. The AI industry at large seems to expose its internal architecture directly to consumers rather than hiding it behind a simpler interface. <\/p>\n

Today, people have to think about whether they want to \u201cchat\u201d with Anthropic\u2019s Claude or \u201cCowork\u201d with its help. (Until this week, those two modes inside the Claude app didn\u2019t even share a memory of past conversations.) ChatGPT is the same, requiring you to swap between \u201cChat\u201d and \u201cWork.\u201d This is the kind of engineering-minded design that makes engaging with AI feel unnatural. Consumers are being asked to learn the brand names for what are essentially interaction modes or surfaces, powered by a company\u2019s AI model.<\/p>\n

This may be why Apple\u2019s somewhat anticlimactic approach to Siri could ultimately win over consumers. iPhone and Apple device owners don\u2019t have to change any of their existing behavior to take advantage of it. Apple simply makes the apps and features that people already use \u2014 like Spotlight Search, the Photos app, the iPhone\u2019s Camera, and Siri voice requests \u2014 smarter without asking users to learn a new interface.<\/p>\n

This same principle may explain the rise of text-based AI services, where users simply text a chatbot \u2014 like Poke, Ollie, Lindy, Orchid, Lucas, Folk, Tomo, Instinct, or others \u2014 and the assistant just does what\u2019s asked.<\/p>\n

Text messaging is a clean and simple, well-understood user interface, and it doesn\u2019t require extra mental effort to figure out which feature or product inside a larger app you\u2019re supposed to use. <\/p>\n

As a16z investment partner Justine Moore recently wrote, \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to open an app every time they need help \u2013 they want a contact they can text like a friend. And the gold standard is iMessage.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3491680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3491679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3491679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3491680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3491679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3491679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3491679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}