- Pixel 9 smartphones now have access to Gemini Live Astra capabilities
- Astra can answer questions related to what you see or what is on the screen of your device
- The powerful AI tool is free, and it arrived on Samsung S25 devices yesterday
Google Pixel 9, 9 Pro and 9a owners of obtaining a huge upgrade of free gemini which adds astra impressive capacities to their smartphones.
As we pointed out yesterday (April 7), the capabilities of the Visual GEMINI AI began to deploy for the Samsung S25 devices, and now the Pixels 9 also obtain impressive features.
So what is Gemini Astra? Well, you can now launch Gemini Live and give him access to your camera, and he can then discuss what you see as well as what is on the screen of your smartphone.
Gemini Astra has been hinted for a long time, and it’s extremely exciting to access it via a free update.
You should see the option of accessing the ASTRA capabilities of Gemini from the Gemini Live interface. If you do not have access yet, be patient, as it should be available for all Pixel 9 users in the coming days.
Although I do not personally have access to a Google Pixel 9 to test the Astra prowess of Gemini Live, my colleague and the editor -in -chief of Techradar, Graham Barlow, the fact.
I asked him to test Gemini Astra and give me his first impressions on the new capabilities of Pixel 9 AI, and you can see what he did below.
To watch
Practical impressions with new Pixel 9 Gemini Astra capabilities
Graham Barlow
Excited by the news of this free update, I decided to try the new Astra capabilities on my Google Pixel 9.
Once you are in Gemini Live, you will notice two new icons at the bottom of the screen – an icon of the camera and a screen sharing icon.
Press the camera icon and gemini switch to photo mode, showing your video of what your phone is watching, but gemini live icons remain at the bottom of the screen.
There is also an inversion button on the camera, so you can ensure that the Gemini examines you directly. I typed this and asked Gemini what he thought of my hair, to which he replied that my hair was “a beautiful natural brunette color”. Gee, thank you Gemini!
I tested the Gemini live with a few objects on my desk – a bottle of water, a magazine and a laptop, which identified themselves correctly and could speak to me. I pointed out the phone to the window to a fairly indefinitely indescribable car park and asked Gemini in which city I was in the city, and she told me instantly and correctly that it was Bath, United Kingdom, because the architecture was quite distinctive, and there was a lot of greenery.
Gemini cannot use Google Search during the online, so for now it is ideal for thinking, discussing, finding ideas or simply identifying what you are looking at.
For example, he could discuss Metallica with me, and managed to identify the Kirk Hammett Funko Pop that I have on my desk, but he couldn’t go online and know how much it would cost to buy.
The screen sharing icon offers a message encouraging you to share the screen with Google, then when you say “share the screen”, it puts a small gemini window at the top of the screen that looks like the telephone call window you get when you start using your phone while you are on call.
When you start interacting with your phone, the window minimizes even more in a tiny red time meter that counts the duration of your life.
You can continue to use your phone and talk to Gemini at the same time, so that you can ask: “What am I looking at?”, And he will describe what’s on the screen of your phone, or “Where are my Bluetooth settings?”, And he will tell you what parts of the Settings Application to watch.
It’s quite impressive. One thing that he cannot do, however, is to interact with your phone in any way, so if you ask him to take you to the Bluetooth settings, he cannot do it, but that will tell you what to support you.
Overall, I am impressed by the way Gemini Live works in these two new modes. We have features like Google Lens that can use your camera like this for some time now, but everything inside the Gemini application is much more practical. It’s fast, without bug, and it works.
