New in-depth looks at the code for Google’s Gemini app on Wear OS suggest that the company could be looking to alleviate one of its most annoying restrictions. And with Google slowly rolling Gemini out to more products and platforms — it recently started arriving on Google TV — it makes sense for the tech giant to iron out the kinks along the way.
Google brought Gemini to Wear OS a couple of months ago, putting the power of its AI assistant directly on your wrist. There are plans to bring it to even more places, too, like Android Auto. But as the company rolls out the AI functionality, it also has to stay on top of annoying issues and bugs. One such issue that has been plaguing Gemini on Wear OS is the fact that you can’t just talk to Gemini hands-free. You have to keep pressing the microphone button. Luckily, this might not be the case for much longer, as an APK teardown by Android Authority suggests that Google is bringing true hands-free operation to Gemini on Android smartwatches.
Hands-free should be truly hands-free
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard complaints about Google’s Gemini requiring interaction from the user when trying to use it hands-free. Complaints from the community suggest that Gemini has been less of a replacement for Google Assistant than many hoped. However, each new update brings the AI assistant one step closer to becoming a true Google Assistant replacement. And that seems to be the hope with this latest code finding in the Gemini for Wear OS app.
According to a line of code found in the latest version of the app — version 1.26.6.804623660 — Gemini could soon support “open mic” operations. That means you wouldn’t need to worry about pressing the microphone button to ask Gemini a follow-up question to your previous query. Unfortunately, the folks who found the code weren’t able to activate it, so there are no details on how it might actually work on Wear OS devices.
There’s also no confirmation from Google yet on whether it will actually arrive anytime soon, or at all. As with any APK teardown like this, the strings of code just show that Google has been looking for ways to address issues or missing functionality. It doesn’t guarantee that the feature will actually launch. But hopefully, the company sees this change through.
