My wife has a Samsung Galaxy A25 cell phone, and some time ago, I showed her how to restart it, which is done by holding down the power button for a couple of seconds until the power menu appears.
It’s good practice to restart your phone from time to time, which is supposed to improve performance by clearing the cache and temporary files.
Stop Gemini And Google Assistant Hijacking Your Phone!
I’m sick and tired of being bombarded by AI, be it Google Assistant, Gemini, or Copilot, and this is exactly what happened to my wife’s phone. She wanted to restart the phone because an app wasn’t working correctly, so she held down the power button only to be greeted by Gemini asking her what she wanted to do. Neither of us uses AI to operate our phones, and I can only assume that this latest intrusion of privacy was the result of a recent Android update.
We didn’t ask for this unwarranted intrusion, so I set about correcting it, which was easier said than done because my wife’s phone is set up in Spanish. I changed the language to English to match the search functions. For example, it’s suggested that we look for Settings>System, but that doesn’t exist in either language. In the end, I went to Settings>Apps and disabled Gemini because you can’t uninstall the damned thing. I pressed the power button again, but this time it brought up Google Assistant – another crass example of Google AI taking over our phones. This made me even madder, so I made a cup of tea and lay down in a darkened room for an hour or so.
Once I had recovered, I found Settings>Advanced Features>Side Button. Why is this an Advanced Feature, ffs? Seems pretty basic to me.
Tapping Power Off Menu solved the problem; however, I can’t help thinking that if we’re not careful, we’ll all end up being mercilessly controlled by AI and end up as nothing but brainless slugs, completely devoid of any thought process whatsoever.
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I asked Gemini: How can I power off my phone?
She told me to press and hold the power and volume down button at the same time. This will bring up the poser off or restart menu.
Scott
Long press on power should do that, but if you’re happy to ask Gemini, that’s fine.
Cheers
Marc
Did this a couple weeks ago on mine and my wife’s A35s. No warning or request; just “Surprise!”
I don’t like surprises in tech, David, unless they’re pleasant ones!
Thanks Marc
I am almost ashamed to say it but after years of sneering at Apple users wanting to buy a woman’s toaster for a phone I am coming over to the dark side and will be buying my first Apple Iphone soon. I have used Android (specifially Samsung) since phones were pretty much a necessity than a luxury.
I recently bought an IPad on discount because I was having problems watching YouTube videos on my Samsung. I’d get the whirring circle of boredom whenever I wanted to particularly watch something and the problems seemed to start around the time Samsung introduced OneUI. After that it definitely wasn’t the same tablet I bought responsiveness-wise and despite troubleshooting it including a full reset (which doesn’t remove the OneUI) it remains a pain in the ass.
So now having got used to the Apple Ecosphere with the IPad and even Apple’s annoying editing quirks I’ve decided I am sick of troubleshooting my ageing Galaxy S10 and Tablet any more and I am going to get me a girly toaster for a phone. The power connection slot of the Galaxy is also getting a bit dicky as well as fussy about which power cord it likes which will hasten my decision. So despite any feelings of embarrasssment I will soon be worshipping at the altar of Jobs after the Iphone 17 comes out and there are hopefully a few specials going on the current 16 models. The only Android thing I’ll be keeping is my GMail mail account.
P.S. I will never, ever, be buying a Macintosh though !
Cheers
Reg
Reg
My brother has done the same, but I’ll be sticking with Android and Windows…
Cheers
Marc