Google announced voice features for Gemini Live, TechCrunch commentary criticizes fragmented branding in AI apps

In its announcement of new voice features for Gemini Live, Google said that users should not have to guess whether a given task requires Spark, Daily Brief, or just a quick search of their inbox. However, the TechCrunch commentary points out that the Gemini app itself undermines this promise: chat, Spark and Daily Brief are three separate functions, each with its own icon and place in the navigation.

According to the author of the commentary, Daily Brief, described by Google as a “proactive and personalized” summary compiled from data in Gmail and Calendar, in practice does not distinguish between urgent information and unsolicited prompts—for example, suggestions to continue research previously started in a chat, or even reminders of previous searches in Google. The author describes this as more distracting than useful. By contrast, Spark, an agent capable of carrying out tasks on behalf of the user, is, in his view, one of the more useful parts of the app, yet it has been given its own separate branding, which the commentary says is unnecessary.

The commentary extends its criticism to the entire industry: the Claude app from Anthropic forces users to choose between Chat and Cowork modes, which, according to the article, did not share conversation history until recently; ChatGPT from OpenAI similarly requires switching between Chat and Work modes. The author describes this as a technically oriented approach to design that makes working with AI feel unnatural because it asks users to learn the names of internal modes instead of simply stating their request.

As a counterexample, the commentary cites the approach taken by Apple with Siri, which does not require users to change their established behavior—it makes smarter features available directly in existing apps such as Spotlight Search, Photos or Camera. According to the author, a similar principle is behind the growth of text-based AI services such as Poke, Ollie, Lindy, Orchid, Lucas, Folk, Tomo or Instinct, where users simply type a request into a message without having to choose between functions. In a quote included in the article, a16z investment partner Justine Moore adds that people do not want to open an app to get help, but want a contact they can text like a friend—with iMessage as the model.