Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Google appears to be developing an “Ephemeral Video Mode” for Gemini Live.
- It’s possible that this could essentially let you go incognito for a Live session, while still working with video input.
- Normally, video shared with Live is archived in your Gemini Apps Activity.
Not every interaction we have with AI needs to take place under the same constraints — and well-designed systems will give us the control we need to dial that in, just how we want it. Sometimes, privacy is going to be paramount, and we want the AI forgetting about the whole interaction the second it’s over. Other times, context is everything, and we want the AI remembering everything for future sessions. Right now we’re wondering if Google could be working on an upgrade for Gemini Live along these lines, as we spot reference to a curious new “Ephemeral” mode.
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Looking through the changes present in version 17.59.17.sa.arm64 of the Google app for Android, a couple fresh text strings catch our eye:
Code
<string name="assistant_robin_labs_ephemeral_video_title">Ephemeral Video Mode in Live</string>
<string name="assistant_robin_labs_ephemeral_video_description">Enable ephemeral mode for video input in Live sessions.</string>Right now, that’s all we have to go on. Robin, as you might recall, is Google’s internal codename for Gemini. So, based on this, Gemini Live sounds like it’s getting ready to support a new video-based input mode that’s immediately forgotten about, and won’t any have long-term impact on your interactions with Gemini.
It’s possible this could be an explicit opt-out for Gemini users who don’t want something stored in their Gemini Apps Activity. Presumably, Gemini Live would process this in the moment the same way it works with video input now — just without any record of the session to refer to later. While Gemini supports temporary chats, those don’t yet work with Live.
But honestly, right now trying to get any closer to Google’s plan here is going to require a little more speculation than we’re comfortable with. All we really have is this “Ephemeral Video Mode” name, its connection to Gemini Live, and the desire to start connecting those dots. For anything more specific, we’re probably just going to have to wait for a future Google app update.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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