Google released Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, and 3.8 Live is now powering Search Live in the Google app, rolling out starting today. “New Gemini audio models just dropped – 3.8 Live is now powering real-time conversations in Search Live,” wrote Rajan Patel, Google’s VP of engineering for Search. The update to Google Search Live brings:
Open the Google app, tap the new “Live” icon and ask your question out loud. You’ll hear an AI-generated audio response and can follow up. If you’re looking at the screen, Google shows links to explore further. Tap “transcript” to see the text version and keep going by typing. To revisit a Search Live conversation, open your AI Mode history.
Google keeps adding Gemini across Search — AI Overviews, AI Mode and now Search Live. Just weeks after Gemini 3.8 Flash landed in AI Mode, model refresh cycles are getting shorter, and results can change each time the model does.
Voice conversations produce longer, more specific questions that narrow as the dialogue continues. Content that clearly answers questions the way people actually ask them out loud has an edge over short-keyword pages. For planning around follow-ups, see designing for the follow-up query in conversational search.
Search Live answers by voice while showing links on screen. Listeners may never see them, but for anyone watching, those links are the doorway to the next action. Clear, verifiable information that can be cited matters.
Mid-conversation language switching matters for travel, retail and education businesses with multilingual customers. Check that your key information exists in the languages your customers use.
Gemini 3.8 Live now powers it, bringing more helpful answers with web links, multilingual support with mid-conversation switching and more natural dialogue.
Tap the “Live” icon in the Google app, ask a question aloud, hear an audio answer and follow up. The transcript button shows text and lets you continue by typing.
Content that clearly answers spoken, specific questions, verifiable information that can be cited, and key information in customers’ languages.
To apply what you just read to your own site, start with a free audit of where things are now.
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