Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google could soon allow users to launch Gemini Live using two gestures.
- We’ve spotted a new Launch Live option in Gemini settings that will let you enable the upcoming gestures.
- In addition to the swipe gesture we spotted last month, you may also be able to launch Gemini Live by long pressing the power button.
Update, March 24, 2025 (08:44 AM ET): Google has cleaned up the settings with recent releases. It no longer redirects to system settings for the power button settings either.
The feature isn’t live yet, but could be close to a rollout.
Original article, March 5, 2025 (11:40 AM ET): Google is working on a change that should make it easier for users to start a Gemini Live conversation on their Android phones. We first spotted evidence of this change in January and gave you an early look at the swipe gesture that would let you start a Gemini Live conversation right from the home screen. It now appears that the swipe gesture may not be the only new shortcut to launch Gemini Live.
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.
To start a Gemini Live conversation, you currently have to tap the Gemini Live button in the Gemini app or overlay. However, based on the evidence we shared earlier this year, you may soon be able to launch Gemini Live by swiping diagonally from the bottom corners of the screen.
In the latest Google app release (version 16.8.31), we have spotted a new “Launch Live” option in the Gemini settings that could let you enable this gesture. As shown in the attached screenshots, the Launch Live option lists “Press and hold power button” as a supported gesture. This leads us to believe that Google may also let you customize the power button gesture to trigger Gemini’s conversational mode instead of opening the Gemini overlay.
In the current release, the power button gesture setting does not list Gemini Live as an option, but that could change with a future build. We’ll update this post with more details as soon as these new Gemini Live gestures go live.
