Google has announced several key upgrades for its Gemini voice assistant at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event. These include the ability to chain actions across apps, Gemini Live support for files and videos, and Project Astra capabilities.
Samsung is one of the best-selling Android smartphone brands, so it's no surprise that Google works closely with them. During the launch of the Galaxy S25 series today, Google unveiled several upgrades to Gemini, some of which are exclusive to Samsung devices and Pixel phones. These include enhancements to Gemini Live and the introduction of Project Astra capabilities in the Gemini app.
Gemini Live offers a more natural, free-flowing conversational experience with Google's chatbot, allowing users to even interrupt mid-sentence to ask clarifying questions or change the subject. This feature was initially announced at Google I/O 2024.
Starting today, Gemini Live will let you add images, files, and YouTube videos to the conversation. This allows for conversational interaction with files and videos.
These capabilities will initially be available on the Galaxy S24 and S25 series, as well as the Pixel 9 series. They'll roll out for other Android devices in the coming weeks, though an exact release date hasn't been shared.
Gemini Live is currently accessible on Android and iOS through the Gemini mobile app. It's broadly available to adult users in a wide range of languages.
Project Astra, one of the most anticipated announcements from last year's Google I/O, connects Gemini to the real world. You can ask Gemini questions about your surroundings, with the assistant drawing on information from Google Search, Maps, and Lens to provide answers. It can remember previous conversations and even retain visual information about things it has seen in the last 10 minutes, all while supporting conversations in multiple languages.
Google announced today that Project Astra capabilities are coming to the Gemini mobile app in the coming months. These capabilities include live video streaming and screen sharing. The Galaxy S25 series and select Pixel devices will have access to these features first. A broader rollout timeframe has not yet been announced.
Although Gemini uses extensions to connect with many external services, it can currently only use one per request. For example, if you ask Gemini to text your friend Michael directions to the nearest coffee shop, it would have to perform these actions separately: first, use the Google Maps extension to find the coffee shop; then, use the Messages extension to compose the text.
Starting today, Gemini can perform multiple chained actions across services. At Unpacked, Samsung demonstrated how this will allow users to, for example, ask Gemini to text a friend the location of a nearby pet-friendly Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. Meanwhile, Google highlighted how you can ask Gemini to save a list of high-protein lunch recipes in Samsung Notes or Google Keep.
Google says this feature will be available on all devices that support Gemini, including the web and iOS.
Google also unveiled new extensions for Samsung Calendar, Samsung Clock, Samsung Notes, and Samsung Reminder. These four apps are exclusive to Samsung devices, and their extensions enable the following actions to be taken:
