How to add extensions to Gemini

The other day I was driving home and wanted to call my partner and let him know I was stuck in traffic. (Not an unusual occurrence on the Brooklyn Belt Parkway.) I have a relatively venerable car (it’s a 2007 model, so we’re not talking about any sharp stuff), so I rely on my phone rather than any built-in intelligence. I handle calls, music, etc. Normally there’s no problem, but this time when I called out, “Hey Google – call Jim on his cell!” my phone informed me – in a very long-winded paragraph – that Gemini doesn’t do this:

I have a vast language model and can communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions, but my knowledge of this person is narrow.

I recently installed Google’s recent AI virtual assistant to try it out. This meant that Google Assistant, the regular voice-activated service, was automatically disabled, and the Gemini, recent and not entirely polished, still lacked many of the functionalities of Google Assistant – including, in my opinion, annoyance, making phone calls and sending text messages.

However, there is a workaround – or rather, a way to enhance Gemini’s functionality. You need to add extensions the same way you add them to, say, Google Chrome. In fact, if I wasn’t driving and could read the additional text on the page, I would have discovered my main problem: I hadn’t turned on Activity in Gemini Apps, which records and stores all of your Gemini activity. Without App Activity enabled, extensions do not work.

So you have a choice: let your activity be recorded or employ the narrow version of Gemini.