Spark

Spark is a feature inside the Google Gemini app that doesn't just talk you through a task—it actually does the work for you. It's like asking a coworker, "Can you take care of this?" and having them go search, organize, and bring back a finished result. It's built for a different kind of request than simply asking a question and getting an answer.

The issue is that this feature sits in the Gemini app as its own separate icon and menu, alongside regular chat and the personal-assistant notification feature. Users have to figure out in advance whether what they're about to do is just a conversation or an actual task that needs doing, and then manually pick the right menu to go into. The feature's execution ability itself is seen as genuinely useful, but critics point out that splitting it off as a separate brand like this actually makes it more of a hassle to use.

Reports explain it this way: "Spark is an agentic feature that carries out tasks on the user's behalf and is seen as genuinely useful, but the fact that Google split it off into its own separate brand is seen as a problem." In other words, Spark isn't being criticized for lacking capability—it's criticized because of the menu structure that forces users to decide every single time which one to use.

Try typing a task that requires execution into the Spark menu in the Gemini app—something like "organize next week's travel schedule into a table for me." Then enter the same request into the regular chat menu and compare how the results differ.