- Pixel 9 smartphones now have access to Gemini Live Astra’s capabilities
- Astra can answer questions related to what he sees or what is on the screen of his device
- The powerful AI tool is free and reached the Samsung S25 devices yesterday
Google Pixel 9, 9 Pro and 9a owners have just obtained a great free gemini update that adds impressive astra capabilities to their smartphones.
As we reported yesterday (April 7), Gemini’s Visual capabilities have begun to be implemented for Samsung S25 devices, and now Pixel 9S also obtains the incredible characteristics.
So what is Gemini Astra? Well, now you can launch Gemini Live and give access to your camera, and then you can chat about what you see, as well as what is on your smartphone screen.
Gemini Astra has been hinted for a long time, and it is immensely exciting to get access to it through a free update.
You should see the option to access Gemini’s Astra capabilities from the Gemini Live interface. If you still have no access, be patient, since it should be available for all Pixel 9 users in the next few days.
While I don’t have access to a Google Pixel 9 personally to try the astra skill of Gemini Live, my colleague and senior editor of Techradar, Graham Barlow, yes.
I asked him to try Gemini Astra and give me his first impressions of the new capabilities of Pixel 9 AI, and you can see what he did with him below.
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Practical impressions with the new capabilities of Pixel 9 Gemini Astra
Graham Barlow
Excited for the news of this free update, I decided to try the new Astra capabilities in my Google Pixel 9.
Once in Gemini Live, you will notice two new icons at the bottom of the screen: a camera icon and a screen screen icon.
Touch the camera icon and Gemini switches to the camera mode, showing their video of what your phone is watching, but Gemini Live icons remain at the bottom of the screen.
There is also a camera investment button, so you can make Gemini look directly. I took advantage of that and asked Gemini what I thought about my hair, to which he replied that my hair was “a beautiful natural brown color.” God, thank you Gemini!
I tried Gemini Live with some objects on my desk: a bottle of water, a magazine and a laptop, all of which identified correctly and could tell me. I pointed out the phone in the window towards a fairly indescribable parking and asked Gemini in which city he was, and instantly, and correctly, he told me that it was Bath, the United Kingdom, because the architecture was quite distinctive and that there was a lot of vegetation.
Gemini cannot use Google search while heading, so for now it is great to make a rain of ideas, chat, invent ideas or simply identify what you are seeing.
For example, I could chat with me on Metallica, and successfully identify the Kirk Hammett Funko Pop that I have on my desk, but could not connect online and discover how much it would cost to buy.
The shared screen icon presents a message that asks you to share the screen with Google, then, when you say “Share Screen”, place a small Gemini window on the top of the screen that looks like the telephone call window you get when you start using your phone while you are in a call.
As you start interacting with your phone, the window is further minimized in a small red time counter that has how long it has been live.
You can continue using your phone and talking to Gemini at the same time, so you can ask: “What am I looking?”, And will describe what is on your phone’s screen or “Where is my Bluetooth configuration?”, And will he tell you what parts of the Look configuration application.
It is quite impressive. However, one thing you can’t do is interact with your phone in some way, so if you ask you to take it to the Bluetooth configuration, you can’t do it, but you will tell you what to play to take it there.
In general, I am impressed how well Gemini Live works in both new ways. We have had characteristics such as Google Lens who can use their camera like this time, but having everything within the Gemini application is much more convenient. It is fast, without errors and works.
