Google Assistant Is About to Lose a Ton of Features

Google Assistant is about to lose 17 different features that the company says are “underutilized.” The changes come as the tech giant is in the midst of firing large amounts of staff, , according to CNBC. Google published Thursday detailing the feature cuts, which it says will ultimately help create a “more consistent experience” for users of the virtual assistant.

Some of the features to go include stuff like using your voice to send an email or audio message, the ability to check personal travel itineraries by voice, voice control options for Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 devices, a meditation integration with Calm, and other convenient options. The full list of features that will disappear can be viewed .

Starting Jan. 26, users who attempt to access these features will be greeted by a notification explaining their unavailability past a certain date. To comfort app users who may have actually liked many of these features, Google had the following to say: Even if Google wants to frame these recent changes as a way to make the Assistant user experience leaner and cleaner, it’s also hard not to see it as connected to the fact that the company just downsized the team in charge of the app’s development.

Google laid off hundreds of workers from both its hardware and engineering divisions Thursday, which is the most significant cut the company has gone through since it with 12,000 workers early last year. Like other tech companies, Google has made it known that these labor cuts to its pivot towards a greater reliance on artificial intelligence..