Good news, fans of Android and AI assistants: The latest Gemini Live upgrade is now available to everyone with an Android phone set to use English, with no need for a Gemini Advanced subscription. As long as you've got Gemini for Android installed on your phone, you can start chatting with this upgraded assistant right away.
Here I'll explain what's new with Gemini Live and how you can get the most out of it—and if you've never heard of Gemini Live and are wondering where Google Assistant has gone, then I've got you covered as well. (If you're really not into Google AI, meanwhile, you could talk to ChatGPT instead.)
Gemini is the name of both Google's latest AI-powered chatbot app and the models that run it, and Gemini Live is the newest way to interact with the app using your voice. It was announced at the Pixel 9 launch back in August, and was originally only available to users paying for Gemini Advanced.
The ability to talk to Gemini on your phone isn't new, but Gemini Live makes the chat experience more natural, in the same way as the Advanced Voice mode on ChatGPT does. For example, you can interrupt the bot mid-sentence, you can pause conversations to come back to them later, and you can choose from several different "natural" voices.
The actual AI underneath the chatbot is nothing new—you can still go back and view text transcriptions run through the same Gemini models as before. What Gemini Live does is make it feel (somewhat) more like you're talking to an actual person (you're not, obviously). It's distinctly more natural than the previous voice mode.
If you can run the Gemini app on your phone, you can use Gemini Live. Google says that you need a device with at least 2GB of RAM and Android 10 or up, so the majority of the phones (and tablets) in use today should qualify. If Gemini isn't already on your phone, you'll need to install the Android app, at which point it will replace Google Assistant.
Across Google's apps and devices, Google Assistant is out, and the more natural and powerful Google Gemini is in. Google Assistant will stay around for a while to support older devices and apps, but as Gemini picks up more skills, it's the AI bot Google will focus on in the future.
Once Gemini is installed on your Android phone, all you need to do to talk to Gemini Live is to launch the app and tap on the small sound wave icon to the right of the text box. You'll then get access to the conversational bot. You'll be asked to choose a default voice, and you can then start a conversation about anything you like—and don't be afraid to interrupt your AI friend if it starts going off track.
Conversations can be paused or stopped using the buttons down at the bottom of the interface, and you can even switch away to different apps and keep on talking with Gemini (to end the conversation, say "stop" or pull down the notification at the top of the screen and choose End Live mode).
As you'll see in Lifehacker's Google Pixel 9 review, Gemini Live is no less susceptible to mistakes and hallucinations than any other AI—just because it sounds more natural doesn't mean it's any closer to being human. Gemini Live will sometimes tell you things that are not quite right, or completely wrong, so always double-check with a reliable source before taking anything it says as gospel.
To access previous chats, tap the speech bubble (top left) to see the list. Tap on a chat to resume it, or tap and hold to pin it to the top of the list, rename it, or delete it.
Tap your Google account picture (top right) then choose Settings, and you're able to switch the voice that Gemini Live uses. In this menu, you can also turn the ability to interrupt Gemini Live on or off.
The other ways of interacting with Gemini are still available of course. You can type in the prompt box, upload an image or file for analysis, or tap the microphone button to speak out your prompt—but unlike when using Gemini Live, you'll get a text chat in response, rather than a spoken one. (You can also switch between modes in the same chat if you need to.)
