Pixel 11 owners can now ask Gemini to call a business for them, placing orders, booking appointments, making reservations, and checking stock on the user’s behalf. The assistant navigates phone menus, waits on hold, and produces a live text transcript that the user can read while the call is in progress, with the option to jump in and take over at any moment.<\/p>\n
This is Google’s second attempt at automated calling, and the new version gives users far more visibility and control than the earlier effort. What remains uncertain is how the businesses on the receiving end of those calls will react.<\/p>\n
Users can send Gemini to a business to handle a defined task: place an order, schedule an appointment, make a reservation, or confirm whether a product is in stock. The assistant works through automated customer service menus on its own, then waits on hold until a person picks up.<\/p>\n
Google describes this as an early experiment limited to Pixel 11 testers. Three details set the new feature apart from Google’s earlier work in the same space:<\/p>\n
That last point is the most concrete change from the “Call for me” feature Google showed last year, which did not give users an in-call takeover option.<\/p>\n
Google has been working on pieces of this problem for years. The new Gemini capability sits alongside two existing tools that handle parts of the phone call experience:<\/p>\n
The new Gemini feature goes further by handling the full task end to end, not just a single step in the call.<\/p>\n
The reaction from the businesses receiving these calls is the open question. Meta is running a comparable test on a wider range of devices and has already run into friction.<\/p>\n
Businesses began hanging up on Meta’s calls once they realised they were speaking to an AI assistant called Muse. Meta’s response was to route some of those calls through human contractors. That workaround also failed, both because of privacy concerns and because some call centre operators rejected the arrangement.<\/p>\n
Meta has a relevant history here. Facebook M, a project the company positioned as an AI-driven assistant, turned out to rely heavily on human operators behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
Google has not described any plan to hire human contractors to fill the gaps the way Meta did.<\/p>\n
Call screening is a separate category from outbound calling, and it has had a smoother run. Pixel phones have offered AI-generated responses to incoming calls for years, and Apple introduced automatic call screening on its phones only last year. Both features filter calls on the device owner’s behalf rather than reaching out to a business, which sidesteps the consent question that outbound AI calls raise.<\/p>\n
Google has not said when, or whether, the new Gemini calling feature will move beyond the Pixel 11 test group. Meta is testing a similar capability across more devices, but the two companies are dealing with the same underlying problem: a business that does not want to spend staff time talking to an AI assistant.<\/p>\n
For now, the feature exists as a controlled experiment on one phone model, with transcripts and a takeover button as the safety valves. Whether those controls are enough to keep businesses on the line is the part that will only become clear once the calls start landing at scale.<\/p>\n
On Pixel 11, Gemini can place orders, schedule appointments, make reservations, and check whether products are in stock. It also navigates automated phone menus and waits on hold.<\/p>\n
Yes. Gemini identifies itself as an AI at the start of every call, and it shows a real-time text transcript that the user can read while the call is happening.<\/p>\n
Yes. The user can jump in and take over the call at any point, which is a change from Google’s earlier “Call for me” feature.<\/p>\n