For people who know it exists, the ability to set location-based reminders is one of Google Assistant’s most useful features. It lets them specify a location, so that they can get an alert when they arrive wherever it is — for instance, a user can say “Remind me to call [name of their friend] in NYC,” and Assistant will send them a notification when they step foot in the city. The bad news for those who rely on the feature to remind them to get certain things from the grocery store or to fill up their car tanks when they pass by a gas station is that it’ll soon no longer exist. In the Assistant Help page, Google added a line that says: “The option to create reminders for a certain location is going away soon.”
The company trailed behind Apple and Amazon in introducing the feature and first announced the ability to set location-based reminders via Google Home devices in 2018. As 9to5Google notes, Google has only just started notifying users who set reminders with a location attached that the feature is getting axed. It didn’t say why, though, and only recommended setting reminders at a certain time or setting routines for a location instead. For the latter, users will be able to prompt Assistant to perform a series of tasks triggered based on where they are.
Google doesn’t have a concrete date for the feature’s removal, but 9to5Google says it could be part of the company’s efforts to make way for the long-awaited “Memory” upgrade for Assistant. It’s meant to transform the voice assistant into a handy organizer, letting users save content, images, reminders and other items in one place that has a smart search function.
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