Introducing Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
Source
blog.google
Date
Context
Google's Gemini 3.8 Live models are designed to keep a voice conversation moving while work continues in the background. In its September 15 announcement, Google says the models can execute tools and API calls while acknowledging requests and continuing the conversation.
The Extended Thinking version adds simultaneous reasoning and speech, including progress narration during multi-step tasks. That gives voice-interface developers a way to distinguish an unfinished task from an unresponsive assistant: users can hear that work is continuing while remaining in the conversation. These are announced capabilities; conversational fluency alone does not establish that a task completed correctly.
Terms in this piece · Glossary
grounding — Tying a model's answers to checkable sources — retrieved documents, live data, tool results — instead of letting it answer from memory alone.
