Google just made a big update for Gemini Live on Android phones and it is very cool because you can talk to it and type to it very easily now without stopping. They call this new thing the Neural Expressive redesign but that is just a hard name for making the app look very clean and work very fast when you want to change from writing a message to talking with your voice. Before this update, you had to stop what you were doing and press many different buttons on your phone screen to change how you talk to the AI, but now there is a new floating screen that comes up on your phone so you do not lose your talk with the AI. This is very good for young people who like to do things fast on our phones and do not want to wait for slow apps to load. You can just change your mind and talk or type whenever you want.
Now you can type a quick question to Gemini and then you can start talking to it with your voice like you are talking to a real friend in front of you. It is like you do not have to stop the chat to change the way you communicate with the phone. If you are too tired to type on the keyboard, you just talk to it, and if you are in a quiet place like a library or a classroom, you can just type with your fingers. The floating interface is like a small bubble that stays on the bottom of the screen and it does not block everything else on your phone, so you can still see your other apps. I think this is very helpful because sometimes I am doing my school homework and I need to look at my search results while I am talking to the AI helper.
Before this new update happened, Gemini Live only could do things with a few apps from Google. It could only connect to Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google Keep, and Google Maps. That was okay but it was not enough for daily life because we use many other apps every day to do different things. It also worked with some other phone brands like Samsung, Honor, OnePlus, Oppo, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi because those phones have their own apps that are like Google apps. But now it can do so much more because Google added many new apps to the connection list so the AI can control them for you.
The new list of apps that Gemini Live can connect to is very big now and it has things that people use every single day. It has Google Home, Google Hotels, Google Flights, Google Workspace, Image generation, Google Shopping, Utilities, YouTube, and YouTube Music. This is the exact same list of apps you can see if you go to the website gemini.google.com/apps on your computer. I want to explain how these apps work because some of them are very useful for students who want to do things fast without opening many different apps and wasting time.
The Utilities app is very important for me because now Gemini Live can set alarms and timers on your phone. This is very good for when I need to wake up early for school or when I am cooking some noodles and need a timer for three minutes so they do not get too soft. Before this update, Gemini could not do this easily with voice in the live chat and it was very annoying, but now it works well. You can just tell Gemini that you want to wake up at six in the morning and it will make the alarm for you. This makes the phone feel very smart like a real assistant in your house.
Now Gemini Live can also work with YouTube Music and Spotify. This is the best part for me because I listen to music all the time when I am walking to school or doing my homework in my bedroom. You can just tell Gemini to play your favorite song or a chill playlist on Spotify and it will start playing. You do not have to open the Spotify app and search for the song yourself. It also works with YouTube Music if you like that app more than Spotify. This is very nice because sometimes your hands are dirty or busy and you just want to hear some music without touching the screen.
If you want to travel or go on a family holiday, Gemini can now help you with Google Flights and Google Hotels. You can ask Gemini to find cheap flights to another city or find a good hotel that is not too expensive for your family. I think this is good for parents who want to plan a vacation but do not have a lot of time to search. You can just talk to Gemini and ask questions about hotels with a swimming pool and it will show you the options. This is much faster than searching on the web browser for many hours because the AI does the hard work of searching for you.
There is also Google Home and Google Shopping now in the update. Google Home is for when you have smart things in your house like smart lights or smart speakers. You can tell Gemini to turn off the bedroom lights or make the room warmer if you have a smart thermostat. Google Shopping is for when you want to buy things online. You can ask Gemini to find a cool jacket or a new backpack for school and it will show you where to buy it and how much money it costs. This is very simple and saves a lot of time.
Another thing is Google Workspace and Image generation. Workspace is for things like Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Slides which we use a lot for school projects and emails. Gemini can help you find your old files or write a simple email for your teacher. Image generation is for when you want to make a picture using AI. You can just describe the picture you want, like a cool dog wearing a space suit, and Gemini will make it for you right inside the chat. This is very fun to play with when you are bored.
But there is one thing that is still missing and this makes me a bit sad because I wanted it. You still cannot send messages using Gemini Live. Google said they would add this feature during the Made by Google event in the year 2024 but it is still not here yet. It would be very cool if we could tell Gemini to send a text message to our friends while we are talking to it. Right now, the normal Gemini app can do some of this but the Live talking part cannot do it yet. I hope they add this soon because it is very important.
Overall, I think this update is very nice because it makes Gemini Live almost the same as the normal Gemini app. Before, the live talk felt like it did not have many features and was a bit boring, but now it can do almost everything. It makes using an Android phone much more fun and easier for everyone. You can switch between typing and talking without any problems and you can control your music, your smart home, and your school work all in one place. It is not perfect because some things like sending messages are still missing, but it is a big step forward and I like using it on my phone.