If you’re a frequent user of Google Assistant, the app might have already prompted you to try out the new Google Gemini Live assistant. It’s a similar service, but it has been supercharged by the latest large language models. It can provide information on a wider variety of topics using more conversational language, and it can understand images, too.
Since its launch, Google has limited interaction with Gemini to text and image input. You could use your voice, but it would transcribe to text first, and you couldn’t have a seamless conversation. To do so, you needed Gemini Live, a part of Google’s $19.99 per month Gemini Advanced subscription. However, that’s changing, and Google has announced that Gemini Live will now be available on all of the best Android phones free of charge.
I’ve been playing with Gemini Advanced lately, as you get a free year with the latest and best Google Pixel phones. There are a lot of features included, but Gemini Live is the one that has impressed me the most. The fact that it’s rolling out for free is a massive win for Android users and could put a dent in iPhone 16 pre-orders following Apple’s delay to its own AI features.
Gemini Live lets you talk to Gemini as if it were a phone call with a real person. There are small gaps in conversations as the model processes what you’ve asked, but the back-and-forth feels surprisingly natural. It’s a great way to bounce ideas around or learn about a new topic and feels like a glimpse of the future.
Of course, there are limitations to the service. It can’t process some basic requests, like turning on and off your smart lights; you’ll have to switch over to regular Gemini for that. As with all AI models, it’s still prone to hallucinations and will often confidently state false information, so you’ll need to double-check what it tells you, too.
It’ll be interesting to see if Google releases any other Gemini Advanced features for free in the future, but the best one is already rolling out, so be sure to check your Gemini app for updates. And if you want to check out what the competition is up to, read our guide to everything we know about Apple Intelligence.