One of the most useful Gemini features will soon be available on a much wider scale. In a post yesterday, Google announced that Gemini Live with camera and screen share is rolling out to all Android users.
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Tap on the new “Share screen with Live” button, and you can show Gemini what’s on your screen and have a conversation about it. It works for files, images, and YouTube videos.
The feature was first introduced back in January, when it was exclusive to the Pixel 9 series and Galaxy S24 and S25. The March Pixel Drop made it available on more phones, including the Pixel 6 and newer.
How ‘Talk live about’ works
Here’s how to use Gemini’s new tool: Open the Gemini app (or you can use “Hey Google” if you have it enabled).
If you want to use your camera, tap the viewfinder button. You’ll be able to ask questions about whatever is in the frame. For example, you can point at food and ask if it fits your diet or eating preferences, or point at your dresser and request outfit ideas.
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If you want to take a photo or add a file, use the “+” button (you can upload TXT, DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, and HWP files). You can choose files from Drive, Gallery, or Files. You’ll see a “Talk Live About This” button appear. Tap it, and Gemini will analyze what’s on your screen. Once Gemini is finished, you can start asking your questions.
By default, Gemini Live is a voice-only conversation. The new feature leverages its multimodal capabilities to provide the AI with more context.
Adam Breeden/ZDNET
You can ask for a summary of a document, help identifying something in a photo, specific details in a file, the context of a YouTube video, and more.
If you want to chat about a YouTube video, open the Gemini overlay while the video is active or paste the link to the video into the Gemini app. “Talk Live About” works with any YouTube video under two hours long and gets its information from the video’s closed captioning.
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Chatting with Gemini about an image or video only shows the chatbot what’s on your screen, but chatting about a file lets Gemini access the contents of the whole file. You could already converse with Gemini about these things before, but it was through text only. The advantage of “Talk Live About” is that it lets you speak to Gemini without typing.
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