Google Assistant no longer prompts users to add date & time when setting up reminders, issue escalated for investigation

One of the many possibilities that the Google Assistant offers is to set reminders. This can be done universally on all compatible smartphones and smart home devices.

However, in the last few weeks, Google Assistant users have noticed a change in the behavior of the system while setting reminders, and some do not like it.

Before, when saying the voice command to establish a reminder in the Google Assistant, it asked the user the time and day to set it.

But, for about a month, while requesting to set a reminder, the Google Assistant no longer prompts users for that (1, 2).

Hello. My phone’s assistant when setting reminders , by voice, no longer asks when and what time.

Instead, the assistant says “ok, I’ll remind you in a couple hours.” This has been a big inconvenience that started a few weeks ago.

I reset the mini assistant with the hope it was something wrong with it but apparently many more people are having the same issue.

If this is a new Google’s assistant way to work, it becomes useless. The old way was better, this new way is awful.
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Now, when requesting the Google assistant to set a reminder, the user must specifically set the time and date in the same voice command.

In case the user does not specify the date and time, the system has two established behaviors:

Although there are users who consider the new behavior a problem, there are other users who like more how it works now, according to some reports:

For me now it’s great: by default in 2 hours or if it’s at night then next day 8 am

You can simply specify the date and hour when creating it: hey Google, remind me to go shopping in 15 minutes
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Will need a day to try it, but this sounds much better. For reminders weeks or months out I just don’t care to set a time – if I wanted to, I’d say date and time all at once. As long as day-only reminders pop at me as early as feasible on the day, sounds great to me
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Apparently, some users find the new behavior more straightforward and efficient. After all, they can still set a time and date by specifying it from the beginning, if needed.

Having said the above, Google product experts escalated the situation to Google. In the end, it would be best if they let the user choose between the classic and the new behavior.

It only remains to wait and see if Google decides to make any changes to this new way to set reminders on Assistant. We will update this article if there is any related development to keep you informed.

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