Gemini Live with camera free on Android, iOS

Google I/O 2025 highlighted a bunch of AI advancements from the company, focusing on Gemini and how it integrates across its product offering and research initiatives.

It released a bunch of tools for film making, image generation, video generation, and other enhanced Search capabilities recently. You can read more in our post 13 Things Google launched at I/O 2025.

At the beginning of the year, the Samsung S25 Series showed us a shift towards “agentic AI” where AI is more intelligent and can make decisions without human input, while being uniquely tailored to the individual through personalisation.

We also saw the term “multimodal AI” being thrown around a lot, where AI can process information from multiple sources, like images, text, video or audio.

Gemini Live was demonstrated to me at MWC Barcelona with camera and screen sharing as a sneak preview, first for Pixel and Samsung devices, but here we are months later and it’s now available to both Android and iOS users.

What is Gemini Live?

Gemini Live, now with its camera and screen sharing capabilities on Android and iOS devices is a multimodal and dynamic conversational experience where you can incorporate pictures, files or videos. It works with natural conversation in the real world, meant to help you discover and learn. In many ways, it can be seen as the upgrade to Search.

Previously you could chat to Gemini Live the way you would chatGPT, but now with the camera and screen sharing functions, you can show the app what you’re seeing in front of you. Whether it’s a plant, appliance, tourist attraction or a work space that needs a makeover.

It is meant to help solve problems, bounce ideas, help with inspiration, identify objects or just provide you with information about your surroundings, if you are traveling.

Real-world examples

@nafisaakabor At Google I/O 2025, Gemini Live was announced free for Android and iOS. Here’s how to use it. #techtips ♬ original sound – Nafisa | Tech Things

In my TikTok, I ask it to help me identify a plant, and to also provide me the South African name in the same question; I ask it to suggest a recipe based on what it can see in my fridge shelf; I ask about fashion – what I can pair my top with; and to identify a small appliance in my kitchen and what its used for.

I also asked it about starting a fire and a hairdryer that I own, using the camera. It also provides a transcript of your conversation in the Gemini app.

Previously, I used this feature with somewhat limited capabilities with my Ray-Ban Meta glasses, but I had to turn my VPN on and pretend to be in the US to get access to the feature.

Gemini Live with camera availability 

Now, Google has made the same feature available to users with a smartphone and it is not locked to a specific region. So I don’t need a VPN to access it like I do with Meta’s AI version.

It should be rolling out to all users, provided you have the Gemini app installed on your device. I just logged in and checked every day and received a couple of days after they announced its availability.

It is available in over 200 countries that Gemini is available in, including South Africa.

Android: Minimum 2GB of RAM; running Android 10 or higher
iOS: Device running iOS16 or higher (iPhone and iPad)

Gemini Live replaces Search

It also changes the way we search for information, you don’t have to use Google Search on the web anymore because it seems quicker to use voice or video than to type. I’ve been moving away from using Search for a while now, for many reasons.

I use a combination of TikTok, Instagram and ChatGPT for getting information. I detail more of this in my column for Brainstorm June issue, how Google made Search unusable and users (me) away from it.

I find Search is now filled with ads, inaccurate AI summaries, what other people search before your results, and does not even provide localised results. If I want to buy something near me, I do not want to see any Chinese e-commerce website on the results, especially when I ask for “near me” in my search string. These things have all made the experience worse for me.

And if you want to find useful information on a website, all the larger sites get preference to only contribute for clickbait. Do you want a listicle about running gear from a large generic news site or a niche running site? This is the dilemma Search currently has.

It also does not prioritise results from forums where people go to seek niche answers. This is also why I favour chatGPT for search now. I can easily calculate calories for the meals I cook, get meal plans, convert imperial to metric calculations, all without ads in my results.

Have you tried Gemini Live or have you replaced Search with chatGPT?

13 Things Google launched at I/O 2025