from the I'm-with-the-Google-and-I'm-here-to-help-you dept.
Google Gemini is coming for your private apps. Here's how to stop it
Google recently informed some users that Gemini AI will have access to numerous new apps starting July 7th, 2025. These include messaging apps and messengers such as WhatsApp, and it applies regardless of whether you actually use Gemini as an app assistant or not.
In an email shared by Android Authority, Google states that they've "made it easier for Gemini to interact with your [Android] device" and that Gemini will "help you use" various apps "whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off." If you don't want this, you'll have to disable the feature in the Apps settings page, but Google hasn't yet provided an explanation of how this will work.
Fortunately, at the request of Android Authority, Google has clarified how this email was meant to be read:
"This update is good for users: they can now use Gemini to complete daily tasks on their mobile devices like send messages, initiate phone calls, and set timers while Gemini Apps Activity is turned off. With Gemini Apps Activity turned off, their Gemini chats are not being reviewed or used to improve our AI models. As always, users can turn off Gemini's connection to apps at any time by navigating to https://gemini.google.com/apps."
Basically, this means that starting July, Gemini will behave more like a local assistant on your Android device and it'll be able to help with simple tasks even if you don't use Gemini Apps Activity at all. Meanwhile, according to Google, the AI can't view private chats.
On July 7, Gemini AI will access your WhatsApp and more
Google recently started notifying users via email that from July 7th, 2025, its AI model, Gemini, will assist apps on Android like WhatsApp, messages, and phone. Simply put, Gemini will get access to your apps even if you previously turned tracking for Gemini Apps Activity off. Soon the AI tool will be able to run tasks like send WhatsApp messages, set timers, and even make calls – regardless of whether you previously told Google's Gemini not to track you. We take a look at how you can disable Gemini on Android from accessing your phone's services, using your data for AI, and how to take back your privacy.
[...] Simply put: this new update will override your previous settings, and Gemini AI will have access to your Phone, your Messages, your WhatsApp, and your Utilities to "help you".
Google has recently started sending notification emails to Android users informing them of a new Gemini update. In the email, it wrote, "Gemini will soon be able to help you use your Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off".
So, what will this update do? Before this update, if you had gone into your Android settings and turned Gemini Apps Activity off, this setting distinguished what Gemini could remember and use for Google products and AI models, then you would have limited Google access for deeper AI integrations on your phone. So Gemini wasn't able to run tasks like placing calls and sending texts due to its lack of access. But soon this is changing, and it seems that your past settings and preferences will not apply anymore.
From July 7th, Gemini can access Messages, Phone, WhatsApp and Utilities on Android – no matter if you had previously turned activity tracking on or off. And no, there was no informed consent from you, the user. Instead, Google is making the choice for you, a similar tactic Google used when allowing Gemini into your Gmail.
[...] The email that Google sent to its users has left many confused because of the vague wording. In the email it first says, Gemini will have access "whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off" but further on it says, "If you don't want to use these features, you can turn them off in the Apps setting page" followed by, "If you have already turned these features off, they will remain off". So, which is it?
In this email notification, Google doesn't name the settings users should look for in the Apps Setting Page, it doesn't give any clear steps for how to easily turn the feature off, and it did not ask users to opt in.
Even if Gemini App Activity is off, Gemini will still get access to these tools on your mobile phone. So how would the user know which feature setting this applies to and how they can stop this?
Gemini is getting ready to replace Google Assistant on Android
You can soon tell Gemini to make calls and send messages without feeding into Google's AI training:
Android users will soon be able to let Gemini control device features and apps with fewer privacy concerns. In an email seen by Android Police, Google recently notified Gemini users that it will start rolling out an update on July 7th that allows the AI bot to "use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off."
Disabling the Gemini Apps activity setting stops conversations with the chatbot from being used to "provide, improve, develop, and personalize" Google products and AI models. It also currently prevents users from asking Gemini to perform tasks in connected apps, such as setting alarms, calling contacts, sending WhatsApp messages, and controlling media playback settings.
The vague wording of Google's message initially raised some confusion around whether the change would give Gemini unrestricted access to private data or system functions. Google later clarified that Gemini's app connections can still be disabled at any time, and that the update "is good for users."
"They can now use Gemini to complete daily tasks on their mobile devices like send messages, initiate phone calls, and set timers while Gemini Apps Activity is turned off," Google said in a statement to Android Authority. "With Gemini Apps Activity turned off, their Gemini chats are not being reviewed or used to improve our AI models."
The incoming change means that people can use Gemini like a personal assistant for their device without contributing to Google's AI training datasets, just in time for Gemini to actually replace Google Assistant on Android devices later this year. Turning Apps Activity off will also stop Gemini interactions from appearing in the activity log, though Google notes it will still save conversations for up to 72 hours for security purposes, regardless of whether the setting is disabled or not.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, @02:01AM (10 children)
Sorry if the answer is in the very long "summary", but what _is_ Gemini? Is it an app? If so, and I do not have it installed, can it still somehow get access to things in my phone?
(Score: 5, Informative) by tekk on Sunday July 06, @04:35AM (2 children)
If you have an Android phone, I believe it's been force-installed by this point in Google Play Services updates. I never installed it but I have it. Gemini is Google's AI "Assistant".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, @08:48AM (1 child)
I wasn't aware I had it either. When I searched "settings" for "Gemini", it showed up. I had never noticed it being there. When I clicked it, it took me to a Google Account login page. I do not have a Google account. So hopefully, I am still rather private.
My fear is any payment credentials used to purchase anything on the web will be shared with Google, and I already have had to agree to a lot of businesstalk just to get my phone turned on, so it looks to me they already have legal footing to do what they may with any info I may offer through any Google "service".
I had just as soon have only the business I am working with aware of my financial information, as I know all too well how some people will gladly snarf up info and use it to enjoy a good time, leaving me with the bill. Nothing is totally secure, but if I can contaminate myself with null pointers, maybe whoever is planning to have me for lunch will pursue easier prey....maybe some rich sob that has Bitcoin wallets in his phone, lots of accounts at high-end retailers, juicy contacts in his email and phone apps, and a Google/Facebook/BigSocialMedia accounts.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, @09:14AM
One other thing...about two weeks ago, the stock Google calendar that came pre-installed in my phone suddenly stopped working in offline mode and began demanding a Google account. I have substantial private personal information in my calendar, going back five years or so. Stuff like doctor and business appointments and other people's special days. Suddenly, none of my offline data was accessible anymore.
If this has also happened to you, the open source F-Droid "Etar" calendar app is a drop-in replacement for the malfunctioning Google app you had begun to trust. It even found the offline calendar files that were being provided to the now-useleds Google calendar.
Although Etar uses a different color scheme and "skin", it appears functionally nearly identical. I do prefer the user experience of the original Google app, but functionality trumps a color scheme and skin any day in my book. I need to learn more about rooting phones, for the very same reasons I had to learn about ad-blockers and proxy servers.
I am not living in a hotel - I need to learn how to clean my own toilet. The toilets I pay for come pre-filled with someone else's crap!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday July 06, @01:53PM (3 children)
Its this generation's "dot net" where it means everything and nothing. It vaguely revolves around Google's AI project and given the enormous money flow it means anything even tangentially related to AI.
My understanding of the problem is they wanted to set off the more paranoid security advocates by allowing it to work as a filter in the search box etc as opposed to having "read" access on your data.
I think some of the privacy advocates are false flags to discredit the concept of not wanting Big Brother to have access to everything. It already does at every layer of the OSI model and its not just Big Brother its all the major governments and corporations. If you think asking nicely in a checkbox will prevent Big Brother from reading your emails... thats so naive I really don't know what to say.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday July 07, @02:24AM (2 children)
I happen to have iPhone (because that's what fell on my head) but how long until it's just as bad?
If I actually used the phone for anything but a phone, this is where I'd flee to the nearest linux phone, buggy or not.
Yeah, I always wonder if those checkboxes (or even those physical switches) actually disable anything. From out here in Userland, how would I know?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 07, @04:25PM (1 child)
I suspect the primary use of those things is ad sales treats them like an opt-in for ads for shady VPN services and similar products.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday July 07, @04:57PM
Yeah, lately I've noticed wording on cookie checkboxes where you can't tell if it's for or against.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, @02:49PM (2 children)
THIS is just another reason to avoid such devices.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by corey on Monday July 07, @01:01AM (1 child)
Firstly,
> Google Gemini is coming for your private apps. Here's how to stop it
Talk about clickbait. Anyway, I’m again not surprised, but I am saddened about this for privacy reasons. Although someone can turn it off, that’ll be 1% of the user base; the rest will not notice anything and just live with it. I predict the next phase is for Google to monetise it by using the collected data for ad revenue. They’ll be the broker of personal info including supposed encrypted chat history. I wonder when Meta, as a direct competitor in the ad market, will start doing edge AI (on the phone) scanning and comprehension of WhatsApp chat history, because that’s what Google is doing here - correct me if I’m wrong!
Glad I’m using an Apple phone, but maybe it’s a matter of time for us as well. They just rolled out Apple Intelligence into the latest iOS.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Reziac on Monday July 07, @02:33AM
Suddenly my very old iPhones, that are stuck back on iOS 15.x and 18.x, seem a lot smarter....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 09, @05:01PM
Unless users take action, Android will let Gemini access third-party apps [arstechnica.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"