Google recently rolled out Gemini for Android and the web, hinting at its potential to eventually replace the Assistant on our smartphones. Users have been putting it through its paces and have quickly noticed that it doesn’t quite measure up to the Google Assistant in terms of features and capabilities. While we can expect Gemini to evolve and gain more features over time, there is at least one recent update that brings it closer to that goal.

Before the update, manually activating Gemini on Android required tapping the send button after each spoken command. This meant having to pay close attention and make sure to press the button once you were done speaking, otherwise its mic indicator would just spin until you indicated you were done.

While this may not seem like a major issue, Google Assistant users have become accustomed to a more natural back-and-forth interaction without needing too much manual input. Fortunately, Google quickly addressed this by issuing an update over the weekend (version 1.0.606412536) that gives Gemini the ability to automatically process commands without requiring users to press the send button. This functionality works when using it by holding down the power button, using a corner swipe, or using the “Hey, Google” command.

It’s somewhat puzzling as to why Google initially released Gemini without this basic feature. However, we know that Gemini is still a work in progress and unfortunately still lacks other basic Assistant features such as continued conversation and being able to handle multiple requests back-to-back. It’s unclear when Google plans to fully transition us from Assistant to Gemini, but it’s evident that there are still plenty of kinks to iron out before we reach that point. Stay tuned for further updates as Gemini continues to evolve!