Now that ChatGPT is rolling out advanced voice mode to some users this month and Apple is on the verge of releasing Apple Intelligence, Google has responded with Gemini Live, a version of Gemini AI that you can talk to on the phone as if it were a real person. Gemini Live is currently only available to Gemini Advanced customers, as part of the AI Premium plan for $20 (£18.99, AU$30) a month, but it should be available to all subscribers with a compatible phone – not just those with a shiny new Google Pixel 9, which the search giant just launched.
My first impression is that Gemini Live is really impressive to hear in action. I can finally talk to my phone like it's a real person, which is all I've ever wanted to do since voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa became popular. Unfortunately, for the past few years I've been forced to use Siri and Alexa to set timers on my phone or play music, as they have a limit to how useful they can be, and they usually refer me to a web page if I ask something too complicated. Instead, with Gemini Live I can have a conversation about almost anything and it will give me a meaningful answer. It understands my words and my intentions on a whole new level. Ask Gemini how the United States fared at the recent Paris Olympics and it will respond with a real answer. Ask it to recommend a diet plan and it will give me some ideas, based on what it knows about me.
Of course, I could already talk to Gemini on an Android phone and ask it basic math questions or ask it about the weather, but the new Gemini Live is a whole new beast. With Gemini Live I can have a real conversation about complex topics, ask it to brainstorm or ask it for advice. To make the conversation really realistic, I can also interrupt its responses, so if I find that the answer I’m getting is going on too long, I can interrupt Gemini and ask it something else. It seems a little rude, but machines don’t have feelings, right? I also don’t need to press anything on the screen to talk to Gemini, so it’s a totally hands-free experience, meaning I can use it while doing other tasks.
Gemini Live is also multimodal, so it can “look” at images or videos on your phone and answer questions about them. This can be particularly useful if I want to take a photo of something and then ask Gemini Live a question about it. It will intelligently take information from the photos and use it in its response. Despite some issues in the live demo at the recent Made for Google event, this is really useful.
Google keeps adding features to Gemini (and presumably will forever), and “in the coming weeks” it will be adding extensions that will start to make it really useful and allow Gemini to integrate with various apps, like Calendar and Gmail. So you can say things like “Find the specs that James emailed me a couple weeks ago,” and it will be able to do so. That feature could end up being the sleeper hit of Gemini Live.
Ultimately, Gemini Live is the best use of AI I’ve seen from Google so far. Google has spent a lot of time and money trying to integrate AI into its search pages with AI Overview, which is not what I want. I don’t want AI taking over my searches and getting in my way with useless answers, when all I want is to be directed to a web page. AI can still get its data wrong, and Gemini is no different in that regard. I simply want AI to help me with my life, and while there’s still a lot to come that will take Gemini Live to a whole new level, for now I can say goodbye to Google Assistant and I can have an actual conversation with my phone, and that’s pretty awesome.
