Anyone who has used a voice or AI assistant in the last ten or twenty years has faced the same problem. You go to talk to the thing, you stop because your brain decided to choose that moment to completely stop for some reason, and the AI assumes you’re done and continues processing half of what you wanted. Google aims to fix this issue with Gemini, at least potentially, with an upcoming update.
Spotted by Android Authoritythe new micro option is currently being tested in version 16.42.61 of the Google app. Once the setting is checked, the user can press and hold the microphone, which allows the app to listen continuously until the user presses the stop button. As Android Authority notes, this is excellent for longer queries where the user may need to pause several times to collect their thoughts or catch their breath.
This will also fix the long-standing issue of Gemini leaving to do its thing without waiting for you to finish, a bug-like issue that has plagued many users. Mashable tech editor Timothy Werth says he encountered this bug while talking to Gemini. The chatbot will rush to answer your question when you pause, even if you haven’t finished answering your question yet.
Crushable speed of light
Users who also want to process multi-step automation and similar more complex prompts will be grateful to be able to voice them all at once instead of being interrupted. Gemini has a smooth chat mode for this type of use case through Gemini Live. However, this is a separate overlay that you need to launch. Having the ability to do this on the main interface is definitely useful for certain use cases.
According to Android Authority, Google is also playing with some UI elements, including the aforementioned Gemini Overlay feature, but it’s unclear if these features will ever make it to production. We do not yet know the release date of the new Gemini micro mode, nor if it will come out of testing.
Topics
Google Gemini artificial intelligence
