Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. Mobile
  4. News

Gemini Live, Google’s futuristic AI feature, is now free to use

Add as a preferred source on Google
A demonstration of Gemini Live on a Google Pixel 9.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Gemini Live, one of Google Gemini’s more exciting features, will soon be available to Android users for free. The Google Gemini team announced the important news on X. The tool was previously only available through a Gemini Advanced subscription.

Gemini Live provides access to a Gemini AI chatbot, allowing you to have natural, free-flowing conversations with the AI using your voice instead of typing. Think of Gemini Live as your new digital best friend on your mobile device. It is capable of answering questions, assisting with homework, helping you plan trips abroad, and much more.

Recommended Videos

Gemini Live was previously only accessible with a Gemini Advanced subscription, which costs$20 monthly after a one-month free trial. This subscription grants access to Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, offering significantly more advanced intelligence than Gemini’s free version. This includes access to larger volumes of information, improved reasoning abilities, and higher-quality text, images, and other creative content for user prompts.

In addition, a Gemini Advanced subscription provides Gemini support for Google products like Gmail and Docs, offers Python code for developers, and grants priority access to new features.

Furthermore, Gemini Advanced unlocks 2TB of advanced storage through Google One. This storage works with Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos, and it is utilized for device backup, similar to other Google One plans.

According to the announcement, the Gemini Live freebie is only available in English and only for Android users using the Gemini app. Apple users, who can only access Gemini Live through the iOS Google app, are not getting the freebie, at least for now.

This is massive news for anyone who wants to try Gemini Live, but doesn’t want to pay the admission price. Hopefully, the free option will eventually roll out in a new language and, of course, to all mobile users, not just those using Android.

Bryan M. Wolfe
Former Mobile and A/V Freelancer
Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.
WhatsApp Plus is here, and you can safely ignore this subscription
WhatsApp wants a monthly fee for what other apps include by default, and that's a problem Meta can't dress up with custom icons.
WhatsApp Plus screenshots.

WhatsApp has fiercely defended its status as a free, no-nonsense online messaging app for over a decade, but a new subscription tier is muddying the waters. 

Meta is rolling out WhatsApp Plus, a paid subscription model, to a limited number of iPhone users using the latest version of the App Store. 

Read more
Apple and Google just put a lock on your green-bubble texts, and it’s about time
The green bubble finally has something to brag about. Apple and Google's unlikely alliance brings real encryption to everyday cross-platform texting.
E2EE arrives on RCS for iPhone and Android phones.

For years, texting between an iPhone and an Android device felt less like a private conversation and more like shouting across a crowded street. Well, that changes on May 11, 2026, as Apple and Google jointly launched end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messaging. 

The long-awaited feature is rolling out first in beta with iOS 26.5 (also announced today) and the latest version of Google Messages. 

Read more
The Razr Ultra 2026 is everything a flip phone should be, but I’m not paying $1,500 for it
A flip phone was never supposed to cost this much. At $1,500, the Razr Ultra finds itself in an uncomfortable fight against everything else your money can buy.
Motorola Razr Ultra

I'll be blunt: $1,500 is a lot of money to spend on the Razr Ultra, a clamshell phone that folds in half. In fact, it's a lot of money to spend on any smartphone, especially when a Galaxy S26 Ultra or iPhone 17 Pro Max costs less and still leaves a few hundred dollars in your pocket, or throwing in a couple of hundred bucks can get you a full-fledged book-style foldable. 

For me, the Razr Ultra doesn't quite make a strong case at $1,500. In isolation, it's a genuinely impressive flip phone that gets all the basics right and delivers the premium experience you'd expect at this price. The Alcantara back, the 5,000-nit display, the silicon-carbon battery, and the dual cameras on the back make it sound like a complete package.

Read more