Gemini app finally gets the world-understanding Project Astra update
At MWC 2025, Google confirmed that its experimental Project Astra assistant will roll out widely in March. It seems the feature has started reaching out to users, albeit in a phased manner, beginning with Android smartphones.
On Reddit, one user shared a demo video that shows a new “Share Screen With Live” option when the Gemini Assistant is summoned. Moreover, the Gemini Live interface also received two new options for live video and screen sharing.
Google has also confirmed to The Verge that the aforementioned features are now on the rollout trajectory. So far, Gemini has only been capable of contextual on-screen awareness courtesy of the “Ask about screen” feature.
In case you aren’t familiar, Project Astra is the most futuristic iteration of an AI that can understand text, audio, picture, video, and live camera feed in real-time. Google Deepmind’s research director, Greg Wayne, likened it to a “little parrot on your shoulder that’s hanging out with you and talking to you about the world.”
When you summon Gemini and enable the Share Screen With Live option in any app, it will analyze the on-screen content and will answer queries based on it. For example, users can ask it to describe the current activity happening in an app, break down or summarize any article they were reading, or talk to them about the scene during video playback.
The more impressive capability is the world understanding system. When you switch to the Live mode for Gemini, it now shows a video feed option that opens the camera. In this mode, if you point your camera at any object, Gemini will be able to see, comprehend, and answer questions based on what it sees.
Pointing the camera at a book passage, asking Gemini to tell more about a monument, getting advice on decor, or solving problems written on a board or book — Gemini Live’s Project Astra upgrade can do it all. It is not too different from Apple’s Visual Intelligence on iPhones, or the open-source HuggingSnap app that promises an offline world-understanding AI.
Digital Trends got a demo of Project Astra at MWC earlier this year, getting an early taste of a massively upgraded AI assistant experience on smartphones. It is worth pointing out that Gemini Live’s Project Astra upgrade will be limited to customers who pay for a Gemini Advanced subscription.
It seems the scale of this Project Astra update rollout isn’t too wide at the moment. I have a Gemini Advanced subscription via Google One AI Premium bundle, but don’t see it yet on any of my Pixel phones running the latest stable version of Android 15 or the beta build of Android 16.
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