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Gemini Live, Google’s answer to ChatGPT Voice is finally launching and it will allow both iOS and Android users to have a “free-flowing, hands-free conversation” with the AI chatbot.
Announced at the Made by Google event, this is just one of several changes built around Gemini designed to make it more powerful as an assistant, and easier to use.
Some of the use cases for Gemini Live given by Google include brainstorming ideas, having a discussion about meal options or using it as a “sidekick in your pocket” that you can chat to any time about any topic and even interrupt if it gets boring in its response.
It will initially only be available in English to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android phones, with more languages, locations, and iOS support “in the coming weeks.”
Google Gemini Live… the voices sound super natural. Here’s a few of the options #MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/YJWGEuqSAXAugust 13, 2024
What is Gemini Live?
Gemini Live was first revealed at Google I/O earlier this year, offering live conversational capabilities with the powerful Gemini chatbot. Similar to OpenAI’s GPT-4o Voice, this includes being able to use natural language, interrupt the AI and challenge it with complex queries.
Launching a voice assistant was an inevitable next step for Google after it began replacing Assistant with Gemini on Android handsets, creating an entirely new way to interact with your mobile device.
This is the audio-only version of Gemini Live but Google plans to add full multimodal capabilities later this year. When launched it would allow users to have their phone camera open while interacting with Gemini, giving the AI a view of the world.
Google says you can interrupt Gemini mid-flow, one of the biggest new features of OpenAI's Advanced Voice — which is still only available to a select group of users.
The company says being able to interrupt could allow you to "dive deeper on a particular point, or pause a conversation and come back to it later."
How do I get access to Gemini Live?
As of today, Gemini Live is available to English-speaking Android users who also have a subscription to Gemini Advanced. This is the premium version of the AI available with a Google One subscription, which will be available for the first year for free with the Pixel 9 series.
If you already have Gemini installed you won’t have to do anything extra — beyond paying $19 a month to get access to Gemini Advanced. Oh, and your language has to be set to English.
Google promises that further language options, as well as an iOS version of the app, will be available in the coming weeks, although no indication of a free version.
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