Summary
Google has introduced Live Avatar for Gemini 3.8 Live, combining conversational speech with near-real-time video of an expressive avatar. The feature is available in Gemini Enterprise, while custom avatar creation is limited to enterprise allowlisting.
Google introduced Live Avatar for Gemini 3.8 Live on September 24, 2026, adding an animated visual presence to its conversational AI. The company says the feature combines live dialogue with low-latency streaming video so an avatar can listen, see and respond with speech and video. It is available in Gemini Enterprise.
How Live Avatar combines conversation and tools
Live Avatar processes visual and audio inputs at the same time, according to Google. Its responses pair speech with an expressive video persona, with the company highlighting lip-syncing, facial expressions and conversational turn-taking. In practical terms, this gives enterprise agents a visual interface for exchanges such as customer service conversations or guided walkthroughs, rather than relying on audio or text alone.
The system can also make tool calls asynchronously. It can fetch data in the background while continuing the conversation, Google says. That lets an agent keep a dialogue active while handling a related task—for example, the company’s demonstration shows a hotel check-in—rather than pausing the interaction until the tool call is complete.
Google says Live Avatar supports multilingual speech-to-speech interaction and can transition between 97 languages during a conversation. The company says lip-sync and expressions adapt across languages without reducing video fidelity or causing visual drift.
Enterprise avatars and safeguards
Organizations can choose from preset avatars or create a custom one from a high-quality reference image. Google says the generated avatar can be animated while retaining the image’s likeness, brand styling or character identity. Custom avatar creation is currently available only through enterprise allowlisting; the announcement does not describe it as generally available to all Gemini Enterprise users.
Google says Live Avatar output carries SynthID, an imperceptible watermark embedded in its audio and video. The company describes the watermark as a way to help make AI-generated content detectable and reduce misinformation and misattribution. Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar is available through Gemini Enterprise, and Google directs developers to its API documentation to get started.