Google Gemini Live Update: AI Assistant Now Mimics Phone Call Interface

Google Gemini update makes asking the AI for assistance feel more like phoning a friend

Last week Google's Gemini Live service received its 'Talk Live about this' update, which allows the AI to have a real-time chat with you about the images, files, and YouTube videos showing on your device's screen. Now it appears that Google is making a subtle tweak to the service's notification to make it look more like you're phoning a friend than chatting with a robot. Usually when you're in a Live chat with Gemini and not in the app, the only on-screen sign is a small notification symbol at the top of the screen, and a message in your notification centre that your mic is on and Gemini can hear and respond to you. Now, as spotted by 9to5Google, some Pixel smartphones are instead showing this notification as if it were a phone call - with a more obvious on screen chip saying you're live with Gemini , and the option to Hang Up or put Gemini on Hold. While this change does seem to offer some user-friendly advantages - more on that below - we can't help but feel that this is a not-so-subtle trick from Google to make Gemini feel more like a friend you're calling rather than some ethereal, impersonal AI. We should note that most people still aren't seeing the style change. This means it could have been rolled out by accident to a select few, or is still in the A/B testing stage. We haven't been able to see call-style notifications on any of our devices, with 9to5Google saying it appeared on one "Pixel 9 Pro running Google app beta version 16.4" - which suggests this may not yet be a change that's ready for the mass market. We hope this notification change does make it to more devices, as one major advantage is that it serves as a more constant reminder that Gemini is listening in. The previous notification was more hidden, so it was easy to forget that you were still in a live chat with Gemini even though you'd left the app (until it responded seemingly out of nowhere). Now there's a constant obvious on-screen reminder that the AI is still on the other end of the line - with an easy option to either leave the conversation by hanging up, or, if you just want to pause the conversation, put the AI on hold (I wonder what Gemini's preferred choice of hold music would be?). This privacy awareness will be particularly useful as Gemini grows its ability to respond to on-screen stimulus. Currently, its more limited feature set means there's not too much reason to leave it running in the background - so you can just end the conversation before leaving the app. But as Gemini gets better at helping you understand a recipe you're reading, or summarizing a complex science video, or performing some other trick which relies on it 'seeing' a different app on your screen, it'll likely be a lot easier to forget to turn the AI off when you're finished using it. At least that would be the case with the old-style of notification, and turning the conversation into a call should be a lot more obvious - although we'll have to wait and see when or even if this style tweak will be rolled out more widely at some point in the future.

Google Gemini Really Wants to Pretend It's Your Friend

Google’s AI now appears like a phone call notification on Android, plus Google adds Gemini 2.0 Pro made for coders. Google’s Gemini Live can talk to you, but I wouldn’t call the human-sounding AI chatbot a stimulating conversationalist. Despite that, Google wants you toâ€"at the very leastâ€"imagine Gemini Live as a true companion. As the company’s AI models grow more capable, Google’s latest updates to Gemini make it seem like the bot is calling you up on your phone rather than you chatting with a cloud-based AI model. Late last week, Google updated its Gemini 2.0 Flash model and made it available to anyone using the Gemini app, so paying for a subscription is unnecessary. There seems to be a hidden update amid those changes, as evidenced by 9to5Google, which found that the company had changed Gemini Live notifications to make them appear far more human than before. Previously, when you exited the Gemini Live on Android while running it in the background, this would appear as a simple notification with a button for users to “End Live mode.†On the new version of the app, Gemini Live appears as a call, with the option to “Hang Up†or put the AI on “Hold.†If you’re running the app from the lock screen, you’ll instead see a notification for “Live with Gemini†and a note the AI is “Listening.†It’s a small change, but it helps exemplify how Google will position its AI in 2025. Gemini Live can talk with users, and recently, it gained the ability to understand uploaded photo or video content. Eventually, Google wants to add vision capabilities from Google DeepMind’s Project Astra assistant. With these extra capabilities, Gemini Live will need to operate in the background without butting up against you using the phone like usual. Google is also updating its current Gemini 2.0 to include several smaller and larger AI models for different use cases. In a Wednesday blog post, the company showed off its new “experimental†version of Gemini 2.0 Pro, claiming it is its most powerful user-end model yet. Gemini 2.0 Pro is mostly there for coders and programmers, and it should be available in the app to anybody who pays for Gemini Advanced. If any coders want to use more AI to get themselves out of a job efficiently, here’s a new option for you. One question is whether or not Google’s latest model is as good as it claims. However, the company says it beats Gemini 2.0 Flash in most benchmarks save for one that checked its ability to provide “factually correct responses given documents and diverse user requests.†On the other side is Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite, which Google claims has the exact power requirements but far more accurate answers than Gemini 1.5 Flash. The new models arrived after OpenAI showed the public its o3 reasoning model. Last week, the company debuted its miniature o3-mini reasoning model. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 phone's big launch feature was cross-app capabilities with Gemini. With a long press of the power button, you can perform simple actions like turning a text message into a calendar invite hands-free. However, in Gizmodo’s own tests, the AI features were far more mundane. The AI is less capable of handling more complex tasks. If you’re spending time checking the AI’s work, you may as well just perform the task yourself. Google will save its best mobile AI features for later this year, closer to Google I/O 2025 and the anticipated release of the Pixel 10. Compared to the so-so capabilities of Samsung’s phones, Google will be looking to wow audiences with AI capabilities. We’ll have to wait and see if all this effort and hype was worth the trouble.

Google Gemini's Newest Update Makes It Feel Like You're Calling a Robot

Scammers Are Using Malicious Google Ads to Steal Your Microsoft Account Phones had personal assistants long before generative AI, and manufacturers have tried different ways to make them easy to invoke. Google's newest update to Gemini Live is trying something new by treating your conversation like a phone call. Gemini Live's New UI Mimics a Phone Call As 9to5Google spotted, Gemini Live has a brand new UI. If you're unfamiliar with it, Gemini Live does away with text-based communication and allows you to talk with the AI assistant. It feels less like you're using an app and more like conversing with a human. We explored how Gemini Live is the best AI voice mode if you'd like to learn more. It seems Google is going all-in with the conversational theme, as the Gemini Live UI has changed to look more like a phone call. Gone is the plain-looking notification that every app uses; now, it features a red "hang up" button and a blue "hold" button to give you the feeling that you're on the line with someone. Google Is Doubling Down on a More Human Gemini So, why did Google make this change? Well, it's hard to say for sure, but I believe it's part of Google's attempts to get people to "warm up" to its new AI assistant. The company has invested billions into Gemini, but all that money spent is for naught if nobody uses it. As such, I feel that Google (and AI companies as a whole) has been working hard to make its AI sound like a human being. That includes both realistic voices and personal mannerisms when addressing the user. That way, it lowers the barrier of entry to use the AI assistant; it allows people to interact with the assistant using natural English instead of forcing people to learn how to prompt an AI properly. Gemini Live's new UI is a big indicator of this shift. You are no longer talking to an AI; you're "calling" a digital friend to help you out. We'll just have to wait and see if this is enough to encourage people to give Gemini a spin.

Google is almost ready with Gemini Live's notification panel upgrade

Summary Google has improved Gemini Live with a call-style notification for more seamless conversational AI interactions. The new interface allows pausing and resuming Gemini Live conversations without returning to the app. Google has been working on this design since at least November, so it could roll out widely not too long from now. Google has made key improvements to the Gemini experience over the past few updates, including changes to Gemini Live, the AI tool that lets you have free-flowing and natural conversations with the chatbot. In November, we learned about an updated design for Gemini Live's persistent notification, similar to the panel that appears during a standard Android phone call. It looks like Google is nearly ready to roll out this call-style notification for Gemini Live. Related 5 essential steps Google needs to take for Gemini to rule AI Improved visuals, agentic evolution, and smart hardware needed Posts 1 Currently, when you activate Gemini Live and leave the app, a notification appears on your screen for "Live with Gemini," with a brief explainer on what it's doing, followed by a button to "End Live mode". But as 9to5Google discovered, Gemini Live's phone call notification, also referred to as a call style notification, is now available, albeit in a limited capacity. As part of this upcoming change, users will see a notification similar to an active phone call, including large pill-shaped buttons to Hang up or Hold. There's also a dedicated call chip that appears in the status bar when Gemini Live is listening, along with a duration indicator. However, this counter doesn't stop even when you've put Gemini Live on hold, as 9to5 found. Close The current Gemini Live notification One of the key benefits of this updated Gemini Live notification panel is that you can pause/hold and resume the conversation without having to go back to the app. By contrast, in its current form, tapping the "End Live mode" on the notification ends that session, thus requiring users to manually reopen the Gemini app to resume the conversation. This updated Gemini Live experience is not widely available just yet Close Via: 9to5Google I'm not seeing the new call-style notification for Gemini Live yet, with 9to5Google reportedly seeing it on a Pixel 9 Pro with a beta version of the Google app (version 16.4). There could be a server-side element involved here, too, so don't be surprised if you're not seeing the updated Gemini Live notification despite installing this particular version of the Google app. Unfortunately, we don't have a precise date for the broader rollout of this updated Gemini Live notification panel. But the fact that it's already been close to three months since it was first discovered by code-sleuth AssembleDebug suggests that we may not be too far away from seeing it in action.