Android Receives Next-Gen AI Upgrade While iPhone Misses Out

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Google has improved the Android system with its powerful free AI camera capabilities, leaving iPhone users behind.

Less than two weeks ago, Google unexpectedly released the "April 2025 Pixel Update" to add live camera and screen sharing capabilities to the company's Gemini Live chatbot for free. This free update is firstly available to users of the Pixel 9 series and Galaxy S25 series only.

Now, Google has cancelled this exclusiveness, bringing these futuristic features to all compatible Android devices without a paid subscription.

How to use Gemini Live with Camera and Screen Sharing

I 've explained these new features before, but in short, this update allows Google's Gemini AI chatbot to talk back and forth about the images seen through the smartphone camera or what is displayed on the screen. You can use it for anything from choosing a day's outfit to getting feedback on your latest DIY job.

You can access Gemini Live with camera and screen sharing by launching the Gemini app and tapping the "Live" icon in the lower right corner of the screen. You can then select the new camera and screen sharing activity from the two icons in the lower left corner.

Google's hesitant Gemini Live update

While the April 2025 Pixel update offers a powerful new and free tool for Pixel 9 series users, it excludes users of other Android devices, including Google's own Pixel 8 series, who have to pay to purchase the Gemini Premium Edition to access.

The Pixel update, also known as the Pixel feature update , is a regular feature update exclusively provided by Google to Pixel users every few months. They play a key role in the company’s marketing of devices as “ becoming better over time ” by continually providing them with the latest new features.

What's unusual about the Pixel update in April 2025 is that it only contains one new feature and is exclusive for only a few days before it is launched to all Android devices.

Important significance

Google's decision to remove this restriction is a big deal because it brings the company's most powerful and exciting AI capabilities to billions of users, which may increase Android devices' awareness relative to iPhones.

While this is good news for Android users, the time interval between the release of this update as an exclusive version of the Pixel 9 series and Google makes it available to all Android users for free is short, which could anger those who have purchased Pixel 9 series devices or Gemini premium versions with these new features.

Furthermore, the rapid rollout of these AI features to all Android devices has resulted in the Pixel 9 series losing its brief exclusiveness in the field, which could have been a powerful selling point for the company's latest devices. However, the overall benefits of this upgrade for Android may be considered to outweigh the limited advantages that make it limited to Pixel and Samsung devices.

Free Gemini Live Camera Update – Which devices are compatible?

According to Google, all devices with at least 2GB of RAM and running Android 10 or higher are compatible with Gemini Live with camera and screen sharing. This covers the vast majority of Android devices used today, making these features available to almost all Android users. These new features are being rolled out gradually, so you may have to wait a while before you can use them on your Android device. You also need to be at least 18 years of age.

Unfortunately, iPhone users currently have to wait, as Google has not announced compatibility with iOS yet. Please follow Google's official support page for the latest updates.

Update April 22: New Gemini Live update tests improved notifications and seamless screen sharing

The Gemini Live screen sharing feature is still relatively new to most users, but Google is already working on making small tweaks to improve the experience.

As recently reported by Android Authority , Google Apps’ latest update on Android makes a simple but important change to how to handle screen sharing during Gemini Live conversations.

The latest update adds a new "Screen" button to the call notifications that appear when you use Gemini Live. This button allows you to turn screen sharing on and off in any application without restarting the conversation.

Once the update is in place, you can simply pull down the Gemini Live notification and click the Screen button to start sharing the screen immediately, no matter which app you are currently using. Similarly, you can choose to stop screen sharing at any time without interrupting your conversation.

Gemini Live allows you to switch to other applications as the conversation continues, but the current implementation is rather clumsy. If you have started a Gemini Live conversation without screen sharing and then decide afterwards that you want to start sharing your screen, you must navigate back to the Gemini Live app to enable screen sharing and then navigate back to your original app again.

Or, if you have configured Gemini as your default assistant, you can call it from the current screen (long press the power button on many Android devices) and activate screen sharing from there. However, this will start a new conversation, losing all the context of your previous chat.

The new button solves all these problems by letting you just swipe down the notification and clicking the "Screen" button. Gemini should then adjust the screen sharing mode accordingly without interrupting the conversation you are having.

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