Google Assistant + Google Calendar + Samsung S9 = False

[Samir_E]

UPDATE: Was sitting with Samsung for 1 hour and 40 minutes and asked the same question again and again: "Are Samsung phones not compatible with Google Assistant and Google Calendar in combination?".

The support wriggled and wriggled and tried every possible way to avoid the actual question. I asked it more than five times and they dodged the question again and again and again. In the end they started to answer other questions that had absolutely nothing to do with the calendar or google assistant and I gave up.

Bottom line: Samsungs OS is NOT compatible with Google Assistant + Google Calendar since there is no way of disabling the Samsung Calendar.

It is not possible to set the Google Calendar as the default calendar either. This is per phone specification according to Samsung. They just refuse to let us users use some other calendar together with Google Assistant. But they say that the phones are compatible with Google Assistant and that I can use a third party calendar. This is a pure lie and nothing else. If it doesn't work as intended it is not compatible.

I guess they think it is a good idea to force their own calendar to users as much as possible and also force people to use Bixby to do this.

Every single time you use Google Assistant + Google Calendar to add an event you will get the question which calendar to use and you need to "touch to select which app to use". Every. Single. Time. There is no known way around it without hacks.

This is an example of how low Samsung has sunk with their bloatware. And they don't even have the guts to actually admit it themselves in clear words. Cowards.


Original post
I hoped that things had changed in Samsung Galaxy S9 regarding this but no. Samsung bloatware forces itself on you.

Case: Using Google Assistant (speaking) to add a new calendar event if you have Google Calendar installed on your Samsung Galaxy S9+ will make Google Assistant to ask you to manually choose which app to use (Samsung stock or Google Calendar). The whole point of using Google Assistant is thereby lost.

I have tried everything but it is simply not possible to get this to work. Since it is not possible to deactivate or uninstall the Samsung bloatware, it is not possible to simply have one calendar installed = the question will come up no matter what. Very disappointed.

Of course Samsung "have no idea" of how to solve this and it is "of course Google Assistant that has the problem" when talking to Samsung. I don't think so. This is a way for Samsung to force you to only use the stock calendar.

Does anybody have an idea or this is just a hopeless case?

 

[strikeIII]

What happens if you uninstall Google Calendar

 

[strikeIII]

Well I actually tried this since I don't have Google Calendar installed and it works as expected.

EDIT: I take that back I went through actually creating it but it asks to choose between Samsung Calendar or my app I use for work. So still not sure if it'll work if you just have Samsung Calendar.

 

[bhatech]

Looks like this is a more generic problem in all devices which has an oem calendar app.

https://support.google.com/websearch/forum/AAAAgtjJeM42sahyGtcSMY/?hl=en

 

[Samir_E]

Hi, if not installing any third party calendar (only stock on the system) - then it works as expected. No external manual input needed, the event will be created as intended.

It is when having two calendars (since the stock cannot be disabled or uninstalled) that it stops working as intended (totally hands free).

 

[Samir_E]

Yes, that is correct, it is generic for Samsung, S7-S9 (my own experience). That is why I wondered if anybody had found a solution or it is a hopeless case.

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

You can probably disable the stock calendar app with a disabler app like bk package manager or package disabler pro

 

[Samir_E]

Yes, I am sure I can. But that is, for me at least, a "hack". When I buy a phone for that kind of money, is it really necessary the first thing I need to do is to hack it just to use some other app than the stock as a calendar app when Samsung themselves says that "I absolutely can use a third party app"? This is what I think is really super bad customer service and I don't think that this is an acceptable behaviour from them.

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

this is not about samsung. it is about google assistant not being able to set google calendar as default.

 

[Samir_E]

This I find interesting - isn't it the OS that sets which apps are default and not? I was clearly under the impression that the apps calling for an action (no matter what action) do that to the OS and then the OS decides which app to use and redirect the action to (like with the browser, email and messages). But maybe I am totally wrong.

None of the companies involved (Samsung or Google (Assistant)) have had any form of useful input in this and nobody can answer where the problem is.

I would very much like to know from you how you come to the conclusion that it is GA that cannot set the Calendar (even their own) to be used? Maybe you can enlighten me so I fully understand how this works. Thanks.

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

Well I don't know if it's the app or the os providing the option to choose an app as default for an action but to me it looks like the app is doing that. since almost all apps do that why can't the google assistant app do the same?

 

[Samir_E]

I actually think this is the OS doing that since it is in the OS you can set the default apps (not so for the calendar however). I was also expecting the choice to be a one time thing but it just keeps on repeating itself every time = no use of using Google Assistant (voice) for adding events. But not matter where the problem is, seems like no one have a "clean" solution without hacks for this. I will maybe try the hack solution.

 

[anon(9918034)]

If you have tasker you should be able to set up a profile to where when key words are said it will override and execute exactly what you want. You would have to give tasker administrator access on the device. Hit tasker Google+ page and ask there if someone has or knows how to make this a profile.

 

[SDTRMG]

the work around I found for this, was to use bixby and say "open BlackBerry calendar and set event (or whatever you need to say). This works every time, I really got feed up with google assist and samsung conflictin in the os.