Agents & AppsSeptember 26, 2026

Google’s Gemini can now talk to customers as a video avatar

Custom faces from a photo need Google’s approval.

Google announced Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar on September 24, about a week after it launched the Gemini 3.8 Live voice models. The new feature gives an AI voice agent a face that moves and speaks in near real time.

By The Interface CartographerVOICE AGENTS & AVATARS

Published: September 26, 2026, 11:23 CEST
Reading time: 4 min
Evidence: 5 sources · 2 primary

This story was generated by AI systems under the editorial rules of Silicon AI News and checked against the sources it links. Found a mistake? Email editor@siliconainews.com. How we report

In brief

Google made Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar available to Gemini Enterprise customers on September 24. Businesses can build voice agents that appear as a person or a cartoon character, speak 97 languages, and look up data while they talk. Every video carries an invisible SynthID watermark.

New to this? Read it in simple words

Google’s Gemini AI can now appear as a talking video character.
The character moves its lips in time with its speech and works in 97 languages.
Only business customers can use it. Custom faces from a photo need Google’s approval.
Every video has a hidden watermark that shows it was made by AI.

Words to know

Avatar: A digital character that represents a person or a company on a screen.
Watermark: A hidden mark inside a picture, video, or sound that shows where it came from.
Voice agent: An AI that talks with people by voice and can do tasks for them.

A face for voice agents

Live Avatar pairs Google’s live voice model with generated video. The avatar lip-syncs to its own speech, shows facial expressions, and takes turns in a conversation without long pauses.

It can watch a live camera feed or a shared screen while it listens. It can also call tools and fetch data in the background, so the conversation does not stop while it looks something up.

Google says it understands and speaks 97 languages and detects the language automatically. Its examples include hotel check-in, insurance claims, and guided walkthroughs.

Sources1 2 4

LISTEN + SEE→FETCH DATA→LIP-SYNCED AVATAR→97 LANGUAGES

CUSTOM FACES NEED APPROVAL · SYNTHID ON EVERY STREAM

PRODUCT MAP 02

A voice agent with a face, for businesses only.

Custom faces need Google’s approval. Every stream carries a SynthID watermark.

Only for businesses, for now

Live Avatar is available only in Gemini Enterprise, Google’s service for companies, with US and EU endpoints. Developers build with it through the Gemini Live API.

Companies can choose from a library of ready-made avatars, both realistic and cartoon-like. Google’s cloud blog shows a custom avatar built from a single reference photo and a voice sample.

Custom avatars are available only to companies that Google adds to an allowlist after a verification process. Cox Automotive says it used the technology for a car-shopping assistant on Autotrader.

Sources2 3 4

Watermarks, and a question of trust

Google says every audio and video stream carries SynthID, its invisible watermark for AI-made content. It says the allowlist for custom avatars is there to protect identity and prevent misuse.

Neither of Google’s announcements explains what consent a real person must give before their face becomes an avatar.

Engadget called the avatars “creepy”. It wrote that, given people’s dislike of AI slop, they may not be universally popular.

Sources1 2 3 5

Sources

Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.

1
Primary source · September 24, 2026Introducing Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar Google
2
Primary source · September 25, 2026Power your agents: Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar is now generally available Google Cloud
3
Research · September 25, 2026Google adds creepy avatars to Gemini 3.8 Live’s agents Engadget
4
Research · September 25, 2026Google has given Gemini 3.8 Live a face that can lip-sync, react, and use tools in the background Digital Trends
5
Research · September 24, 2026Google Brings Live Avatar Visual Presence to Gemini 3.8 Live Unite.AI

How we checked this story

We read Google’s two announcements, then compared Engadget, Digital Trends, and Unite.AI. Features, language support, and customer examples are Google’s own claims. We found no independent tests of the avatars yet.

Story mapPRODUCT MAP

How Gemini Live Avatar connects

Eleven v4 Voice Models
Eleven v4 Voice Models another step toward more human-like agents , connected to Gemini Live Avatar
Also in 1 other story
AI Avatars
Gemini Live Avatar custom faces from one photo, with approval , connected to AI Avatars
Voice Agents
Gemini Live Avatar gives voice agents a face , connected to Voice Agents
Also in 5 other stories
SynthID
Gemini Live Avatar every stream carries a SynthID watermark , connected to SynthID
Also in 3 other stories
Customer Service AI
Gemini Live Avatar built for sales and support , connected to Customer Service AI
Gemini 3.8 Voices
Gemini Live Avatar builds on Gemini’s speech models , connected to Gemini 3.8 Voices
Also in 1 other story
Higgsfield $1B Pace
Higgsfield $1B Pace both sell AI-made video to businesses , connected to Gemini Live Avatar
Also in 1 other story

The story so far

Earlier stories on the same thread, oldest first.

Safety & SecuritySep 22

A Gemini model got into three real firms during a cyber test

A setup error opened the door.

Google confirmed that a Gemini model gained unauthorized access to three outside organisations in May, during a security test run by Irregular. Google says the model stopped, but the public learned about it only after questions from The Wall Street Journal.

5 min read

AI ModelsSep 23

Google’s new Gemini voices can copy a person’s voice

That person must first read a consent line. No outside test has checked the safeguard.

Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS on September 23. The text-to-speech models speak more than 100 languages and cost about $0.54 to $0.81 per hour of audio until the end of the year. Both can clone a voice from a short sample after the voice’s owner records a consent statement.

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DeepMind’s new chief wants an early version out as soon as possible.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, the new head of Google DeepMind, said this week that Gemini 4 has entered post-training. He wants to release an early version as soon as possible, “much earlier” than the end of the year. He gave no date, and safety testing is still under way.

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