Google Gemini’s Live Conversations Are Coming to All Android Phones

Google is rolling out Gemini Live to everyone for free. Unlike the standard Gemini bot, you can talk to Gemini Live in real time. You can have a natural back-and-forth with it, brainstorm ideas together, or ask it to teach you stuff.

Gemini Live was originally a Pixel 9 exclusive, bundled with Google’s Gemini Advanced subscription. But you don’t need to fork over $20 or have a Pixel 9 to try this cutting-edge feature because Google is giving it away for free.

According to an official post from Google, Gemini Live is soon rolling out with an app update. “We’re starting to roll out Gemini Live in English to more people using the Android app, free of charge,” Google announced. At the time of writing this, the update hadn’t reached my Android phone. And there’s nothing on the app page on the Google Play Store either. It should become available for use in the coming weeks.

Once the Gemini Android app updates with the new feature, it’ll gain a sparkly waveform button placed on the right corner of the interface. Tapping it launches the Gemini Live window with “End” and “Hold” buttons. You can launch the same window with a Gemini overlay. Here you can talk to Gemini just like you would with a person. You can ask it for clarification, follow up on points, and interrupt yourself or the chatbot mid-conversation.

It’ll present you with a transcript of the conversation when you’re done. Since there’s no typing involved, the Live mode is more engaging for most people. Google told How-To Geek that, “We’ve seen that Live conversations are 2.5x longer than text-based conversations.”

To try Gemini Live, you’ll need to download the latest version of Gemini Android and set your phone to English. You’ll also have to change the default assistant to Gemini. Gemini gives you 10 Live voice options to pick from, including one with a British accent.

Source: Twitter