Google this morning announced the April 2025 Pixel Drop with just one feature. Notably, Gemini Live’s new Astra camera and screen sharing is available for free on the Pixel 9 series.
Officially, the Project Astra-powered capabilities are “available for free with all #Pixel9 phones.”
That availability is not tied to the 1-year Gemini Advanced trial offered on the Pixel 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold, but rather the devices themselves. It will remain available even if you’re no longer a subscriber.
Meanwhile, Google tells us today that this free access to camera and screen sharing also includes the upcoming Pixel 9a, which is set to launch later this week.
There’s a similar arrangement for the Galaxy S25 series, with Samsung noting today how it’s available to those “users at no additional.” It follows Google teasing Astra at the S25 launch event, while Made by Google that day also shared how it’s coming to Pixel.
Following this morning’s announcement, camera and screen sharing is widely rolling out, including on tablets. More broadly, it remains to be seen whether these features are coming to free Gemini app users anytime soon.
This is the latest example of Google doing an out-of-cycle Pixel Feature Drop that doesn’t follow the usual quarterly schedule. The January 2024 update allowed the Pixel 8 Pro Thermometer app to measure body temperature, previewed Circle to Search, the Nearby to Quick Share relaunch, and two features in Google Messages (Magic Compose and Photomoji). There was also Audio Switch coming to the Pixel Watch, as well as the Mint Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.
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