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Google preparing Skills and Gemini Live for web rollout

Google preparing Skills and Gemini Live for web rollout

AI TestingCatalog
Google is bringing real-time voice and reusable task shortcuts to the web version of Gemini.
What: Google is testing a 'Gemini Live' button on the web to enable real-time voice, alongside a new menu for creating and managing custom 'Skills' that allow users to store and reuse instructions across chats.
Why it matters: Google is closing feature parity gaps with Anthropic's Claude Projects and OpenAI's GPTs by shifting agentic capabilities from its gated Spark tier to the general chat interface.
Deep dive
  • Gemini Live is being prepared for web and desktop platforms.
  • 'Skills' are moving from Gemini Spark (the paid agent tier) to standard chat.
  • Users will be able to build, upload, and edit custom skill instruction packages.
  • The interface will likely include a dedicated menu for managing skill folders.
  • These updates follow recent Chrome prompt-shortcuts and Gemini Enterprise connector enhancements.
  • Technical development currently focuses on a new Gemini 3.6 Flash model while Gemini 3.5 Pro releases remain delayed.
Decoder
  • Gemini Live: Google's real-time voice interaction feature that allows for conversational, interruptible audio dialogue with the AI.
  • Gemini Spark: Google's specialized subscription tier that provides access to autonomous agentic features and deeper automation workflows.
Original article

Google appears to be preparing two notable additions to Gemini on desktop and web. In recent builds, a Gemini Live button has surfaced in the web version, suggesting the real-time voice mode may finally move beyond mobile. Live remains absent even from the desktop app today, though testing is reportedly underway within the scope of Google's Trusted Tester program, and a simultaneous debut across desktop and web looks plausible. Google itself promised new voice capabilities for the macOS app at I/O in May, and earlier signs in that app pointed to voice selection options and a screen-sharing overlay, so the groundwork has been visible for months.

The same builds also carry traces of skills being wired into regular chats. Skills currently live exclusively inside Gemini Spark, the autonomous agent Google gates behind its AI Ultra subscription, where they act as reusable instruction packages the agent applies to recurring tasks. The traces suggest ordinary chat users could soon:

  • Upload their own skills
  • Pick from predefined ones
  • Build new ones from scratch
  • Have Gemini generate a skill on their behalf, even without Spark access

Google is working on a native menu for Skills on Gemini desktop. These Skills may become available in all chats (fingers crossed). Users will be able to upload, create, and edit their Gemini Skills, as well as use Gemini to create them. Skill folders will also be available…

That would mirror what Claude and ChatGPT already offer, closing one of the more visible feature gaps in Google's assistant, and it fits a broader pattern: Chrome received a lighter prompt-shortcut take on skills in April, and Gemini Enterprise already lets workers invoke skills mid-chat.

Timing is the open question. Gemini 3.6 Flash appears to be in preparation while Gemini 3.5 Pro has slipped repeatedly, most recently past a mid-July target, so a stopgap model could arrive first. Something may surface on Google by the end of July, but nothing here has been announced, and plans of this kind can shift before launch. Together with Live on web, chat-level skills would make the everyday Gemini experience considerably more capable.

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