Google Adds Captions to Gemini Live Conversations
Abner Li reported for 9to5 Google earlier this week Google has added support for captions to Gemini Live in the company’s eponymously-named Gemini app on iOS and Android. The captions began appearing for some users earlier in June, according to Li.
“When you launch Gemini Live on Android or iOS, a rectangular captions button appears in the top-right corner. Tapping will enable a floating box that provides a transcript of Gemini’s responses. (This does not show what you’re saying in real-time, but that remains available in the full text transcript after ending the conversation.),” Li wrote. “It appears near the middle of the fullscreen interface in audio mode, and at the top when video streaming is enabled. These three lines of text cannot be moved or resized. In Gemini > Settings, there’s a new ‘Caption preferences’ item underneath the ‘Interrupt Live responses’ on/off toggle that links to system settings on Android.”
The big takeaway is, obviously, conversations with Gemini will be more accessible.
As I’ve noted before, I have the Gemini app for iOS on my iPhone’s Home Screen, as well as a widget on the Lock Screen. I really enjoy Gemini as my preferred generative AI tool, and have found it has supplanted much, if not most, of my web searches via Safari. I find Gemini to be a way more accessible (and digestible) method to get quick bursts of information collated in one place rather than manage a half-dozen browser tabs. “Trust but verify” goes the axiom, of course, so I’m well aware Gemini will (and does!) hallucinate from time to time, but I’ve been more than satisfied with its performance overall. I have a ChatGPT Plus subscription too, since notably Apple Intelligence integrates with it, but I generally like the Gemini app experience better. Perhaps that’ll change once the Jony Ive-Sam Altman partnership bears more fruit, but for now, I’m a happy Gemini user. Despite the rapidity with which AI seemingly advances nowadays, the reality is the technology still is really early in the proverbial ballgame. That Google—and OpenAI, for that matter—is clearly committing to making its respective tools accessible is a ray of hope for the inclusiveness of AI’s ever-burgeoning capabilities.
