Google’s Prepping To Make Gemini Live The Assistant You’ve Been Waiting For

Gemini Live is one of Gemini’s more compelling features, letting you interact with Google’s AI chatbot much in the same way you would a real person: a back-and-forth exchange without awkward pauses or the need to interject “hey Google” before each sentence you say. It’s a cool feature, but it’s also limited. Currently, Gemini Live is unable to access Gemini Apps, the integrations (formerly known as Extensions) that connect Gemini to other applications and services. According to an APK teardown from Android Authority, though, that could be changing soon.

Gemini Apps allow Gemini to interact with external services — for example, to control smart home devices in your house, or to play a song on Spotify. At present, this capability is missing from the conversational Gemini Live interface. But according to Android Authority’s teardown of the latest beta version of the Google app (16.17.38.sa.arm64 beta), Google is working to support Apps when using Gemini Live.

Code contained in that release reviewed by Android Authority contains the string “EXTENSIONS_ON_LIVE_PHASE_ONE,” which seems to point to Gemini Apps coming to the Live interface, though the reference uses the older Extensions language. The phase one part makes it seems as though the rollout of Gemini Apps within Gemini Live will be a staged process, with some Apps becoming available right away and others to come later.

Yet another Google I/O announcement to look forward to?

AA’s APK teardown doesn’t provide much context, only hinting that Google is working to bring Gemini Apps to Gemini Live. We don’t know which apps are coming to the conversational interface, much less when to expect the upgraded experience to roll out. Google I/O kicks off in just a couple of weeks, though, so it’s possible we’ll hear more then.