Gemini Live’s camera sharing could soon work better with Google Maps (APK teardown)

Currently, users can use Gemini Live’s camera sharing feature to learn more about the places in front of them. They can point their phone’s camera towards any storefront, restaurant, place of historical significance, etc., and ask Gemini Live questions about it. Using the Google Maps extension, Gemini Live will pull key information, like average ratings and number of ratings about the place, and speak the information out to you. You can get this information displayed on the screen using Captions.

Google is working to improve the feature by showing preview cards on Gemini Live’s camera sharing screen. The cards would contain information from Google Maps, such as the place’s name, type (restaurant, historical monument, etc.), average rating, and number of reviews. We managed to activate the feature ahead of its launch to give you an early look at it:

Gemini Live will show multiple cards if Google Maps has multiple places with the same name, as shown in the screenshots above. Gemini could have used the device’s location to pinpoint where the user is, possibly narrowing down the search results from Google Maps in some cases, so that’s a lost opportunity. Maybe Google will see this as feedback and add the feature in future releases. If the place’s name is relatively unique, you will see a singular entry.

This feature will also work with Gemini Live without camera sharing, i.e., when you have a regular audio-only conversation. However, without the visual cues, you will have to be very specific about the place’s name so that Gemini can figure it out and display a card. For now, the info cards are not clickable, but Google could make them clickable in future releases to take you straight to the Google Maps listing page.

Google has not yet shared any information about further upgrades to Gemini Live’s camera sharing functionality. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.