Last time we compared Apple Intelligence to Google Gemini, it wasn’t… well, it just ended the way you expected it to.
But both of them had some significant issues. But now, things are different.
Apple is launching iOS 26, Gemini has had multiple major upgrades, Android 16 has been rolled out, and OneUI 8 is also available.
So I thought now would be an interesting time to put a fork in it, and check how done both of these AI Assistants actually are on their latest respective operating systems.
Which Versions?
First - there are a few different flavours of these AI Assistants.
Over with Google Gemini, which works across pretty much ANY Android Phone, we’ll be testing which version is better with the S25 Ultra, and we have the Basic Gemini, which replaces Google Assistant.
Then there is also Google AI Pro, which is a separate subscription that you have to pay £18.99 per month for, which includes more advanced Gemini Apps, including Googles Veo 3 Video generation, NotebookLM which is a research and writing assistant, and can hook into apps such as Gmail and Google Docs.
And then we have, Google AI Ultra, for a whopping £234.99 per MONTH! Which adds on more features for Veo 3 video generation, NotebookLM, Gmail and Docs, and bundles in a YouTube Premium Plan which, I'm glad to see for that price.
Over on Apple, you have the option of just Siri, OR, Siri Plus ChatGPT, or even Siri, Plus ChatGPT, Plus a ChatGPT Plus Subscription, which costs £19.99 per month here in the UK, and which gives you access to higher limits for photos and files, and more advanced and somewhat better voice models and features.
So today we’re going to do some side-by-side comparisons so you can see for yourself, how good each of these AI Voice Assistants are with real world, day to day tasks.
Triggering Assistants
Triggering the assistants are simple. Either Say Hey Google or Hey Siri to your phone, OR, hold the power button down. This also works if you’re wearing earbuds, although for some third party earbuds you may have to hold the touch controls to trigger the voice assistant.
Basics - Timers
Starting off with the basics - Setting timers.
Gemini created both timers successfully. Whereas Siri only created one, where it combined both times together. So I had to fix that manually and I found it to be a pretty poor start to what is a VERY basic task.
With that said - if you try and do the same with Alarms, right now, Gemini has a bug where setting multiple alarms just reads out a bunch of code back to you which can be equally annoying. Although it does actually do what you want it to do.
Contextual awareness
But now let’s try and use contextual awareness to delete the tasks we created. I asked the voice assistants to delete both of the alarms we just created.
Gemini works as expected, but with Apple I got mixed results. Sometimes it would do as asked, other times it would get stuck in a loop, telling me to identify which timer, only to keep asking me until I selected only ONE timer to delete at a time.
Apple’s Intelligence really isn’t looking very erm, intelligent right now.
Shopping Lists
What about Shopping lists? Another basic task that we might often use.
I got some mixed results for this test. However, Google Gemini was definitely the stronger of the two.
Conversation
But what about Conversational AI? This is an area we are seeing many AI services making huge leaps and bounds, being able to have a natural conversation about any topic under the sun.
Starting with Gemini, we could actually tap 2 buttons to start sharing a live feed from my camera, but over on Apple, you can’t do this with Siri, because by pressing and holding the Camera Control button, if you have an iPhone 16 or higher, it just lets you take a photo and ask ChatGPT questions about it.
However, you can do this in the ChatGPT App.
Politics
One thing to be aware of with these AI Assistants is that with some topics which could be sensitive to discuss, like politics - well, at certain times of the year, such as election times, they aren’t always able to answer.
Right now, it’s absolutely fine. But I remember around 10 months ago, I asked the same question, and Gemini would refuse to answer me…
Unfortunately I didn’t check Siri at that time, so I couldn’t tell you if that was across the board.
Coupon Codes
But the conversational part of an AI Voice Assistant doesn’t stop there, because whilst it can be useful to have a discussion for an opinion or learn about something, you can also use it to find information for you.
For example, you can say; “I’m just about to buy a TV from Samsung.com, Do you know of any coupon codes?”
When I tested this, Gemini actually knew that I was in the UK, so it pulled off specific coupon codes that I could use.
Siri, via ChatGPT, just really isn’t that helpful. It just kept saying, yeah - sure there are coupon codes. You should probably go look online for those…
Not very helpful..
Holiday Planning
And last one for the conversational comparison for now, AI assistant can also be useful for holiday planning.
For example you can say; “I need help planning a holiday to Dubai. It’s for 4 of us, so 2 kids and 2 adults. I want to fly in the morning, direct flight only. Staying at a 5* IHG hotel near the palm island. With a return flight 5 days later. Can you find flights and plan it all out for me? “
Funnily enough, a few times I asked it, Siri thought I needed to call the emergency services, for some reason?! But Gemini does an excellent job, once again. And ChatGPT’s response is pretty reasonable too.
Cross-App Actions
Moving on now to interacting with your phone. This is something that Apple highlighted a year ago now, as a capability of Apple Intelligence. Being able to use the voice assistant to do something in one app, and then take that action across to another app. And one which Google somewhat quietly dropped along with, I believe it was the Samsung S25 Launch in early 2025.
Finding an email
So first up - trying to find information that’s inside an email, and in this case, inside a PDF attachment of an email….
I asked; “I’m looking for the itinerary for Samsung Unpacked. Can you find the email that contains this and tell me what I’m doing on the Wednesday?”
Handing this over to Siri, and - no matter how I phrased the question, Siri would either just, disappear without a response, try to hand it off to ChatGPT, tell me it couldn’t find anyone named Samsung Unpacked, or couldn’t find any information for, The Wednesday…
But Google isn’t all rainbows either - one key issue I have with Gemini is where I have multiple Google accounts - a work one, and a couple of personal accounts. So for it to search the right account, I have to make sure I’m using the correct Gemini account, otherwise it can’t access the right inbox.
But still, at least it works… which is more than can be said about not so Apple Intelligence…
Sending a Message on WhatsApp
Let's move onto messaging now!
I asked the AI Assistants; “Send a message to Matt Chesters on WhatsApp”
Well, what a surprise! Or actually rather not, because WhatsApp and Google Gemini has been so hit and miss over the last year or so of using Android that sometimes it works, other times it flat our refuses to see the contact.
I then asked it to ;“Send the last photo I took to Matt Chesters” This was actually a roaring success so next I said ; “Play my Favourite songs on Spotify” and then “Find some local restaurants that have chocolate cake for dessert and text them to Matt Chesters” want to know what it produced? Take a look here:
Calendars
Next I asked; “Can you look up all of the holiday dates for schools in Hampshire and add them to my calendar?” Again, check out the video to see how they faired.
Scheduled Actions
But more than that, you can also ask Gemini to do things for you on a routine.
For example: “Summarise my calendar appointments for the next 12 hours at 10am every weekday morning. “
This works great, and it’s really useful - you can get super imaginative at what you can ask it to do on a routine. If you use Gemini as a Fitness coach, you could get it to prompt you to provide your days food diary, or workout routine or weight and measurements.
Whereas Apple Intelligence will simply give you the days appointments, and not be able to schedule this as a recurring action.
Android Auto vs Apple Intelligence
But with all of the good stuff, we are still stuck with the old, Google Assistant, for Android Auto. And Siri seems to be at least on par with being equally, hit and miss when in the car.
With that said, we are starting to see Google roll Gemini out - recently they announced Gemini now runs directly on the latest Pixel and Samsung Galaxy Watches.
But we’re still waiting for Gemini to run on various Smart Speakers, and Nest Hubs - and with Apple, on Homepods. So they still have some way to go to being just one AI System across their respective platforms.
CIRCLE TO SEARCH / VISUAL INTELLIGENCE
Outside of voice features though - each Android phone comes with other features which are powered by that brands own AI, and with Samsung, that’s Samsung AI.
With some features, like Circle to Search which was first launched on Samsung, but was a Google feature which was then rolled out to all Android phones, Apple then introduced its competitor. Back then, it was limited to the camera view only, meaning you could only question it on real world shots. But in iOS 26, you can now get the same features for screenshots. Take a screenshot, and use the context-aware actions, such as ‘Add to calendar’ for time and dates, or do a reverse image search with Google, or hand it over to ChatGPT.
Over on Android, it’s a case of tap and holding at the bottom of your screen, then tapping, or circling whatever you like to get more information.
This actually works really well - you can tap on links which aren’t formatted as a link, I even used it before to find what shoes someone was wearing by zooming all the way in from a huge distance away, and it was spot on!
PHOTO MANIPULATION
Both Apple and Android also let you do things like using AI to edit photos. And there have been some pretty fun examples of this to show how capable each one is.
I’m not going to lie. Apple is pretty AWFUL when it comes to this. Here's a simple test you can try. Take a selfie where you cover half of your face, then use the image editing tools to erase your hand, and then have it generate what it thinks should be there… and in this case it’s Samsung AI that wins, it does an INCREDIBLE job and is head and shoulders above what Apple Intelligence is currently capable of.
Hallucinations
There are some caveats to be aware of, with both Gemini and Apple Intelligence.
Hallucinations are one of them, it’s always worth asking to double check itself as there have been a few instances where it’s given me one answer, then I’ve asked it to check, and it’s given me a different answer, then asked it a third time and it’s confirmed the second answer it gave was correct…
OFFLINE MODE
For a LOT of these features, you will need internet access, as both Gemini and ChatGPT are online.
With Siri, you can still do things like setting Alarms, Timers, Launching Apps, Check your messages, enabling or disabling things like bluetooth and wifi, but with Gemini, you are currently unable to do anything offline as it just tells you there is no connection.
Gemini vs AI vs ChatGPT Privacy
And then there is the whole privacy debate.
ChatGPT - is NOT private. You shouldn't be sharing anything sensitive on it at all. Which is why Apple’s default implementation of ChatGPT is to have it ask you if you want to ask ChatGPT before it goes to ask it…
And Gemini isn’t really any better. With a recent announcement saying that humans and service providers will read, annotate and process the data that Gemini processes… this is not good.
Summary
So once again, as far as capability goes, Google Gemini, as a voice assistant, has really made a LOT of progress.
Honestly, it’s really hard to see how Apple can catch up here. As someone who had been using an iPhone for as long as they’ve existed, and up until about a year ago - it’s getting really difficult to want to put my sim card back into an iPhone - when Gemini and really Android in general are starting to get an awful lot of things right lately.
It’s not just about being one step ahead right now, Gemini is leapfrogging their competition.
