Background information
What’s in my bag: Martin’s keyboard isn’t a crowd-pleaser
by Martin Jud
How well Gemini Live performs in everyday life
9.4.2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Michelle Brändle
Don't know what colour to paint your living room wall or what to wear with your favourite jeans? Gemini Live is now designed to help you with various matters directly via mobile phone camera and screen sharing.
Gemini has long been installed as an AI assistant on many smartphones. You will probably encounter the artificial intelligence most often when searching Google, whose answers it summarises for you. You can now share the screen of your smartphone to ask Gemini questions. Gemini can also use the camera app to get a picture of your surroundings and respond to it. This should make conversations with Gemini easier and more intuitive.
Who can use Gemini Live
While the Basic version of Gemini is available for free, you can only use Gemini Live with the Gemini Advanced plan. If you own a smartphone from the Google Pixel 9 series (including Pixel 9a) or the Samsung S25 series, Gemini Live has been available to you free of charge since 7 April.
Where to find Gemini (Live)
You can access Gemini Live in two different ways
Option number one: Press and hold the power button on your Android smartphone and Gemini Live will switch on. Now you can have a verbal conversation and share the screen.
Option number two: Call up Gemini via the app. Then click on the star button at the bottom right (next to the microphone icon). Now you can have a verbal conversation with Gemini Live and share the screen.
The conversation works in over 45 languages like a phone call, during which you can hang up again afterwards. The conversation is written down and saved in the Gemini app for later viewing.
What Gemini Live can do
Gemini Live offers many possibilities for support in everyday life. The AI is particularly helpful in the following scenarios
Troubleshooting
If a household appliance is causing problems, I can ask Gemini Live for advice. For example with my record player. The record sounds funny because it's spinning far too fast.
- The question: My record player plays the disc too quickly. What could be the problem?
- The answer: Gemini gives me various clues, which I can then check to find a solution. For example, the belt could be loose or worn. I can show Gemini all of this live via the camera and receive direct feedback.
When I show Gemini that the belt is OK, he suggests I check the speed selection. The switch should be set to 33 ⅓ rpm. I have deliberately set this incorrectly. Gemini didn't realise this obvious problem until later, but still.
Learning and further development
If I would like Gemini Live to give me feedback on a piece of work I have written, this is also possible. It doesn't matter whether my question relates to the text itself, the images or both. In my example, it's about text and images on my website that I don't like.
- The question: I don't like the combination of image and text on my website. What additions can I make?
- The answer: Gemini gives me input on what I could write about the images, but thinks that the text goes well with the drawings.
The ideas are basic, but can definitely help. They also show that Gemini can recognise and analyse relationships between images and text.
Create order and find objects
I can ask Gemini Live for advice if I'm having problems tidying up. For example, on better ways to organise my drawers.
- The question: Is there a way to better organise the messy drawer?
- The answer: Gemini advises me to use a cutlery tray and group by size.
The solution approach is understandable. However, it also shows that Gemini Live has not recognised my existing order - I already have a cutlery tray.
Online shopping and style advice
If I find an item of clothing online that I like, I can ask Gemini for outfit tips. For example, I ask Gemini Live what would go with the trainers
- The question: I like these black Vans. What would go well with them?
- The answer: Gemini recognises the model and provides a possible combination. Gemini then asks about my style to provide further suggestions.
Here Gemini Live shows that it not only provides input for an image, but also takes my personal taste into account. Hopefully that's not why everyone is suddenly walking around in the same outfit.
Implementing creative projects
Do you have crafting tools at home or leftovers from another project? Then Gemini Live can give you tips on what else you can do with them. In my example, I have collected a lot of beautiful paper and photos and would like to do something with them.
- The question: I have a lot of Polaroid photos and beautiful paper here. What could I make with them?
- The answer: Gemini Live advises me to make a collage or a photo album out of them. Gemini also mentions greeting and birthday cards as another option.
The ideas from Gemini Live are not groundbreaking. Nevertheless, they can help me to think further in one direction. Together with the Pinterest image and ideas platform, I get enough input for further DIY projects.
What Gemini Live can't do
Questions via the camera app don't always work. Sometimes Gemini Live thinks it doesn't recognise anything or hallucinates objects. A photo that has already been taken currently works even more reliably. The solutions are also very simple. I can also find many answers myself.
Google says that app access is still being expanded and will gradually become available. As soon as I can really use the camera for Gemini Live, further possibilities will open up. For example, Gemini Live could then help me find objects or choose a great book for my taste in the library.
Header image: Michelle Brändle
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
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