Gemini can now call businesses for you so you can skip phone hold times

Google has begun rolling out to the Pixel 11 a new Gemini experiment that hands off to AI something as everyday as it is annoying: calling a local business. According to Google's own announcement, the feature lets you ask Gemini — from the Gemini app on your phone — to call on your behalf to make a reservation, check whether a product is in stock or change an appointment time, without the user having to dial the number or wait on hold.

What sets this version apart from earlier experiments is the scope of the delegation: Gemini does not just dial the number, it takes over the entire call. It introduces itself to whoever answers, navigates automated customer service menus, sits through the hold time and carries on the conversation with the person at the other end, all without human intervention unless the user decides otherwise. Google insists that control remains in the user's hands at all times, thanks to a live transcript of the call and the ability to take over the conversation at any moment.

The feature expands on the one Google showed last year, dubbed 'Call for me', which let the AI phone local shops to ask about product availability but gave the user no option to step into the call. The leap now is twofold: on the one hand, Gemini handles a wider range of conversations (reservations, appointments, availability) and not just one-off queries; on the other, it adds the oversight and takeover capability the previous version lacked.

Google is not the only company exploring this territory. Meta is working on an equivalent feature for its AI agent Muse, also designed to place automated phone calls, although those calls have reportedly been handled by people behind the system rather than fully autonomously. The comparison casts Gemini as a more decisive bet on genuinely automating the phone conversation, against an approach that, in Meta's case, still appears to rely on human intervention.

For now this is a tightly limited rollout: Google describes it as an 'early preview', available only to paying Gemini subscribers enrolled in the 'Phone by Google' public beta on Pixel 11 devices, and only in the United States. In other words, it is not yet a general feature even for all Pixel users, but an experiment restricted to a small group of advanced users within a specific beta program.

Beyond the obvious convenience of not having to wait on the phone, the feature leaves open questions, such as how businesses at the other end of the line will react on discovering they are talking to an AI that identifies itself as such, or how far this kind of automation will spread in consumer telephony if Google decides to take it out of the experimental stage. For now it remains a limited trial, but it points in a clear direction: routine calls to businesses no longer requiring human intervention at either end of the line.