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Google · Voice models

Gemini 3.8 Live talks and thinks at the same time, and it is now available to everyone

Google made two voice models for the Live API generally available. One is for fast conversation without pauses, the other reasons in the background while the conversation goes on.

Source
Google AI for Developers
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The event
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Responsible editor
Cvetelin Ivanov
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Anyone who has talked to a voice assistant about something complicated knows the pause. You ask, and silence falls in which you do not know whether it heard you, whether it is thinking, or whether it simply hung. It is awkward.

Google's new models are an attempt to remove exactly that silence.

Fact

The facts: on 15 September 2026 Google announced in the Gemini API release notes the general availability of two audio-to-audio models for the Live API. Gemini 3.8 Live (gemini-3.8-live) is the default choice for most low-latency voice agents and dialogue without reasoning delays; it brings interleaved reasoning, asynchronous function calling by default and full session client content updates. Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking (gemini-3.8-live-extended-thinking) reasons in the background during the live conversation and is recommended when more thinking is needed. The same day Vercel added both to its AI Gateway and described automatic switching across 97 languages and tool calls while the conversation continues. Gemini 3.8 Flash has been generally available since 2 September.

The important part is asynchronous function calling. In plain words: the assistant kicks off a task, checking an order or searching a calendar, and keeps talking to you while it waits for the answer. With synchronous calling, the conversation stands still until the tool returns something.

The second model goes further and thinks in parallel with speech. Vercel describes it like this: it can acknowledge that it heard the request and narrate how far it has got without interrupting the conversation. A good waiter does the same when an order runs late, and nobody thinks of him as slow.

Silence in a voice conversation costs more than a mistake.

The price of the new models is not in the note, and the 97 languages are Vercel's words, not Google's. Whether Bulgarian is among them and how it sounds will be found out by ear, not from a table.

The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.