Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google has started rolling out an update to Gemini Live.
- The update allows you to hold, continue, or end a conversation with the AI without needing to access the app.
- Gemini Live now uses a call chip instead of an icon to let you know it’s running in the background.
If you follow our APK teardowns, you may remember that last year we found a change to Gemini Live related to how a user pauses or continues a conversation. Google is now starting to roll out that update for some users.
Back in November, we learned Google was working to streamline how you interact with Gemini Live as it runs in the background. Previously, if you hid the AI in the background, you’d see the app’s icon in the status bar. By going to the notifications panel, you could see a notification that tells you Gemini is listening, along with an action to “End Live mode.” If you wanted to hold or continue your conversation, you’d have to open the app. You can see the old behavior in the screenshots below.
In the new behavior, however, the notification had been changed to include two buttons. One of those buttons allowed you to pause or continue the conversation, while the other let you hang up on Gemini. Additionally, the Gemini logo in the status bar was replaced with a call chip that shows a live count, as you can see below.
As confirmed by 9to5Google, it appears this update is starting to land on some phones. According to the outlet, they saw the change on a Pixel 9 Pro, which had the Google app running on beta version 16.4. They reportedly have not seen the change on any of their other devices. We have not seen this change yet on any of our devices either.
As with any APK teardown, discovered features can change before the final product is released. Overall, it doesn’t seem like much has changed from what we saw earlier. The only difference here is that the Gemini sparkle in the notification has been replaced by a different icon.
You might like
Follow