We've tried Google Pixel 9's new Gemini Astra upgrade, and users are in for a real treat

Date:
Tue, 08 Apr 2025 10:46:48 +0000

Description:
Pixel 9 smartphones now have access to Gemini Astra, and it's seriously impressive.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Pixel 9 smartphones now have access to Gemini Live Astra capabilities Astra can
answer questions related to what you see or what's on your device's screen
The powerful AI tool is free, and it arrived on Samsung S25 devices yesterday

Google Pixel 9 , 9 Pro, and 9a owners just got a huge free Gemini upgrade that adds impressive Astra capabilities to their smartphones.

As we reported yesterday (April 7), Gemini Visual AI capabilities have
started to roll out for Samsung S25 devices, and now Pixel 9s are also
getting the awesome features.

So what is Gemini Astra ? Well, you can now launch Gemini Live and grant it access to your camera, and it can then chat about what you see as well as what's on your smartphone's screen.

Gemini Astra has been hinted at for a long time, and it's immensely exciting to get access to it via a free update.

You should see the option to access Gemini's Astra capabilities from the Gemini Live interface. If you don't have access yet, be patient, as it should be available to all Pixel 9 users in the coming days.

While I don't personally have access to a Google Pixel 9 to test Gemini
Live's Astra prowess, my colleague and TechRadar's Senior AI Editor, Graham Barlow, does.

I asked him to test out Gemini Astra and give me his first impressions of the new Pixel 9 AI capabilities, and you can see what he made of it below. Hands-on impressions with Pixel 9's new Gemini Astra capabilities

Once youre in Gemini Live youll notice two new icons at the bottom of the screen a camera icon and a screen share icon.

Tap the camera icon and Gemini switches to a camera mode, showing you video
of what your phone is looking at, but the Gemini Live icons remain at the bottom of the screen.

Theres also a camera reverse button, so you can get Gemini to look directly
at you. I tapped that, and asked Gemini what it thought of my hair, to which it replied that my hair was a lovely natural brown color. Gee, thanks Gemini!

I tested Gemini Live with a few objects on my desk a water bottle, a magazine, and a laptop, all of which it identified correctly and could tell
me about. I pointed the phone at the window towards a fairly nondescript car park and asked Gemini which city I was in, and it instantly, and correctly, told me it was Bath, UK, because the architecture was quite distinctive, and there was a lot of greenery. (Image credit: Future)

Gemini cant use Google search while going live, so for now its great for brainstorming, chatting, coming up with ideas, or simply identifying what youre looking at.

For example, it could chat with me about Metallica, and successfully identified the Kirk Hammett Funko Pop Ive got on my desk, but it couldnt go online and find out how much it would cost to buy.

The screen share icon comes up with a message prompting you to share the screen with Google, then when you say "Share screen" it puts a little Gemini window at the top of the screen that looks like the phone call window you get when you start to use your phone while youre on a call.

As you start to interact with your phone the window minimizes even further into a tiny red time counter that counts how long youve been live for.

You can keep using your phone and talking to Gemini at the same time, so you could ask it, "What am I looking at?", and it will describe whats on your phone screen, or "Where are my Bluetooth settings?", and it will tell you which parts of the Settings app to look in.

Its pretty impressive. One thing it cant do, though, is interact with your phone in any way, so if you ask it to take you to the Bluetooth settings it cant do it, but it will tell you what to tap to get you there.

Overall Im impressed by how well Gemini Live works in both of these new
modes. Weve had features like Google Lens that can use your camera like this for a while now, but having it all inside the Gemini app is way more convenient. Its fast, it bug-free, and it just works. You might also like Gemini Gems are now free - here are 4 ways you can use custom AI experts to help cope with the stresses of your busy life I asked Gemini to play a text-based adventure game with me and the AI whisked me away to a word-based fantasy Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: latest news, rumors, and everything weve heard so far



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/weve-tried-google- pixel-9s-new-gemini-astra-upgrade-and-users-are-in-for-a-real-treat


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