Google 'Astra' Ready To Launch As It Joins The Main Gemini Team Alongside New VP

At the start of this week, Google announced that video and screen sharing is coming to Gemini Live on Android later this month. Ahead of that launch, the group working on Project Astra is formally joining the Gemini app team.

Google made this announcement internally this morning. At its inception, the team working on Project Astra was part of Google DeepMind’s broader research arm with the goal of building a “universal AI agent that can be truly helpful in everyday life.”

The Astra product team is now joining the Gemini app team as it moves from research prototype to a shipping product this March. Before this formal move, the Astra team has been working closely with the Gemini Live team. Google tells us that some parts of Astra’s research team will remain in the previous organization.

Making this change helps accelerate product development, with Astra officially announced last May at I/O 2024. Google provided an update with the launch of Gemini 2.0 in December and showed a preview mobile application and glasses for trusted testers. The goal has always been to launch Astra as part of Gemini Live.

On Monday, Google officially announced that Astra is coming in March to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android. Users will be able to share their screen or live video feed and have contextual conversations.

Meanwhile, Google today also announced a new Vice President of Product for the Gemini app. Chris Struhar left Meta at the end of 2023 after working on Facebook since 2010. His most recent role was as VP of Product for Creators, with Google touting his track record around shipping products. Struhar reports to VP and General Manager Sissie Hsiao, who took the stage last I/O to announce all the Gemini news.