Gemini's Call for Me makes real phone calls to businesses from Pixel 11

Google is trying again to have its assistant make phone calls for people. On Thursday it announced Call for Me, an experimental beta feature that lets Gemini call businesses on a user's behalf and hold a back-and-forth conversation with the person who answers, Wired reports. The feature is exclusive to the new Pixel 11 phones, in the United States and in English.

To use it, Pixel 11 owners need a paid Gemini subscription and must be enrolled in the public beta of the Phone by Google app, according to Wired. Google describes it as a small-scale experiment, Hipertextual notes, because real conversations are unpredictable and the AI still needs to be refined.

How a call works

The user opens the Gemini app and asks it to call a given business, for example to book a table for two at 7 pm the next day. Before dialling, Gemini displays a summary of the task, the number it will call and the list of information it intends to share, so the user can approve it, according to Frandroid and Hipertextual. Gemini may ask follow-up questions for more context, Wired adds. If a business has little presence online, Gemini will try to find the number, but the user can also provide one, a Google spokesperson told Wired.

On the call, Gemini introduces itself as an AI assistant acting on the user's behalf and warns that the conversation may be recorded, Frandroid and Hipertextual report. It calls from the user's own number, according to 9to5Google as cited by Hipertextual. It can navigate automated phone menus and wait on hold. On the phone, the user sees a live transcript and can take over at any time with a button. When the call ends, a notification gives the result, and the summary and full transcript are kept in the Phone app history, Hipertextual writes.

The voice is the same one used in Gemini Live conversations; the assistant does not imitate the user's voice, Wired specifies. Frandroid points out why that matters: Google can now clone a voice from thirty seconds of audio, and letting Gemini pass itself off as the user would open a very different debate.

The limits Google has set

• No calls to emergency services such as 911 or 112.
• No payments, and no card number read out loud.
• No sensitive data such as passwords, medical records or social security numbers.
• No telemarketing.
• A daily cap on the number of calls, and businesses can refuse to be called this way.

These safeguards are described by Frandroid and Hipertextual. Google also told Wired that Gemini will politely hang up if a business cannot meet the request.

Duplex, eight years later

The idea is not new. In 2018 Google demonstrated Duplex, which let the now-defunct Google Assistant call restaurants and book tables, complete with hesitations to sound human; the service was shut down a few years ago, Wired and Frandroid recall. Since then Google has added more modest features to its phones: Hold for Me, which waits in the queue and alerts the user when a person picks up, Direct My Call, which displays automated menu options before they are spoken, real-time Scam Detection, and Ask for Me last year.

What is new is the scope, Frandroid argues: Gemini no longer just navigates a menu or waits on hold, it leads the conversation and passes on the information the user has approved. Google is not alone; Meta is already deploying agents able to make phone calls, named Muse and Instinct, according to the same outlet.

Wired notes that the Phone app on Pixel and Android can already screen incoming calls and block robocalls and telemarketers, and that businesses are also experimenting with AI on their side, such as the California pizza chain Pizza My Heart, whose chatbot takes orders by text message. The magazine sees a future in which a phone asked to call a restaurant is answered by the restaurant's own AI.

What remains uncertain

The human factor is the real test. A busy shopkeeper may take the call for spam and hang up, or the AI may stumble over an accent and go round in circles, Wired and Frandroid note. That is exactly what we want to continue testing, the Google spokesperson told Wired, adding that the company wants users to try a variety of cases to improve the feature across accents and noisy environments. No international rollout or date has been announced, Frandroid says.

What this changes for businesses

For shops, restaurants and service providers, the change is on the receiving end: some calls will soon come from an AI assistant speaking for a customer, clearly announced as such. Staff will need a simple rule for these calls, such as confirming bookings the same way as for any other customer and never giving information they would not give a stranger. In Brazil the feature is not available and no date has been given, but local businesses that take bookings by phone can already expect the same kind of calls if Google or Meta extend their agents to other markets and languages.