Start a Live conversation in the Gemini mobile app and tap Camera, and the assistant can see whatever your lens points at and talk about it. Tap Camera a second time to stop, and use Switch to rear or front camera to flip lenses. It cuts out on its own after a hold, a lock or leaving the app.
Getting Gemini to look through your lens
The whole thing happens inside a Live conversation, so start one first. If you haven't used Live before, our guide on getting started with Gemini Live covers opening a conversation and talking to it. Once you're in, Google's help page for Live gives you these controls.
- Open a Live chat in the Gemini mobile app.
- Tap Camera. You can also tap Turn on video streaming on the Live screen, which starts the camera as well.
- Point the lens at whatever you want to ask about and start talking.
- Tap Switch to rear or front camera if you need the other lens.
- Tap Camera again when you want it off.
Which lens you start on matters more than you'd think. The front one is for showing your face or something you're holding up close to it; for a shelf, a label or the room around you, flip to the rear lens before you start asking, so the first thing Gemini sees is the thing you're asking about.
Three ways the camera switches itself off
This is the part to understand before you rely on it. The camera turns off automatically in three situations, and they don't all behave the same way afterwards.
Live goes on hold. The camera switches off, but when you continue the chat it comes back on by itself. This is the only one of the three that recovers without you doing anything.
You leave the Gemini mobile app. The camera goes off and stays off when you come back. Jump out to check a message and you'll return to a chat that can no longer see.
Your screen locks. Same result: off, and still off once you're back in. If your phone tends to dim and lock quickly, that can catch you out in the middle of a question.
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The practical lesson is simple. If you need to step away briefly and want the camera to pick up where it left off, put Live on hold rather than leaving the app or letting the screen lock. And if the camera has gone dark after either of the other two, tap Camera again to bring it back.
Muting keeps the picture going
Pressing mute silences your microphone, nothing more. Your video carries on going across to Gemini while you're quiet. That's handy if you want to keep pointing at something while you have a word with someone in the room, but it's a poor choice if what you wanted was privacy. To stop the picture, the control is Camera, not mute.
What the camera is good for: reading and describing
Google describes a feature called Guided Vision for this: with the camera shared, you can get audio cues to help with things like reading a small label or understanding what's around you. That's the use I'd point most people towards first. Small print on a jar, a washing label, a sign across the street, a cluttered desk where you've lost something: these are jobs where talking it through out loud beats typing a description.
Hold the phone steady, get close enough that the text fills a good part of the frame, and ask one thing at a time. If the answer comes back vague, move the lens rather than repeating yourself.
Other people in your shot
Google's help page asks you to respect other people's privacy: ask first before you film anyone or bring them into a Live chat. With the rear lens on, it's easy to sweep the room and pull in people who didn't agree to be part of it, so check what's in frame before you start. If you're weighing up the wider privacy picture, our piece on whether Gemini is safe is worth reading, and if the camera button won't respond at all, work through our Gemini troubleshooting steps.
