Copyright Android Police
Gemini Live was released over a year ago to paid subscribers, with Google rolling it out to all users shortly after. Over the past few months, we've learned about under-development features coming to the audio-based conversational AI experience, while its Google Keep integration also went live in June. Google is now working on a feature that could be among the handiest additions to Gemini Live in recent memory: a mute button. Looking into version 16.42.61.sa.arm64 of the Google app, the folks at Android Authority have spotted a dedicated mute button for conversations with Gemini Live. This button reportedly replaces the existing Pause/Hold button, although it's unclear if this is what the final version of this feature addition would look like. A feature that makes a lot of sense Gemini Live's upcoming Mute/Unmute buttons Google is clearly going all-in with this upcoming functionality, as the Mute/Unmute button also appears in the "Live with Gemini" notification when the AI assistant is running in the background. In its current form, the only way to stop Gemini Live from listening to you is by tapping the pause button. However, this also brings the entire conversation to a halt. So one can understand what led the Gemini team to develop a mute button. However, I'm not sure if the mute button should come at the expense of the existing pause/hold option, which several users may have gotten used to at this point. Ideally, users should be able to hit either pause or mute depending on their environment. Unfortunately, the lack of onscreen space may be a hurdle here, as adding a fifth button could make the interface crowded. Google will likely need to make the existing row of buttons smaller to accommodate both mute and pause options. Keeping this in mind, all signs point to the mute key eventually replacing the existing pause button. Since this functionality had to be activated manually via the Google app by Android Authority, the chances of making it appear on your smartphone are slim. However, given the amount of work that has gone into bringing this new functionality to life, we won't be surprised if it appears more widely over the next few weeks.
