Google’s Gemini Can Now Make Calls for You on Pixel Phones

Google Gemini 现在可以代你在 Pixel 手机上拨打电话了

Google has been trying to have its AI assistant make phone calls on your behalf for almost 10 years. Remember Duplex? It enabled the now-defunct Google Assistant to call restaurants and book tables. That service was shuttered a few years ago, but now comes round two, powered by modern large language models.

近十年来，Google 一直致力于让其 AI 助手代你拨打电话。还记得 Duplex 吗？它曾让现已停用的 Google Assistant 能够致电餐厅并预订餐位。尽管该服务几年前已关闭，但现在第二轮尝试已经到来，并由现代大语言模型提供支持。

On Thursday, Google announced Call for Me, an experimental beta feature exclusive to its latest Pixel 11 smartphones in the US (and in English). Pixel 11 owners need a Gemini subscription and have to be enrolled in the Phone by Google app’s public beta. Google has instructions on how to participate here.

周四，Google 发布了“Call for Me”功能。这是一项实验性测试功能，目前仅限美国地区的最新款 Pixel 11 智能手机使用（且仅支持英语）。Pixel 11 用户需要订阅 Gemini，并加入“Google 电话”应用的公开测试计划。Google 已在此处提供了参与说明。

These calls are designed to reach businesses. Gemini can call your local hardware store to ask if they stock a specific tool, or chat with a barber to schedule a haircut. Just tell Gemini to make the call—it may ask you follow-up questions for more context—and the chatbot will introduce itself and can have a back-and-forth conversation to ensure your request is handled. If it runs into an automated phone menu, it can navigate it and even wait on hold. On your end, you can view a live transcript on the Pixel and take over at any point.

这些通话旨在联系商家。Gemini 可以致电你当地的五金店询问是否有某种特定工具，或者与理发师沟通预约理发。只需告诉 Gemini 拨打电话（它可能会询问后续问题以获取更多背景信息），聊天机器人就会进行自我介绍，并进行双向对话以确保你的需求得到处理。如果遇到自动语音菜单，它可以进行导航，甚至可以代你保持通话等待。在你的手机端，你可以查看实时转录，并随时接管通话。

Google says it works best with businesses, but there are some establishments Gemini won’t call, like emergency services. That said, you can ask Gemini to call specific numbers. For example, if your tattoo artist doesn’t have much of a web presence, “Gemini will try to search for a phone number, but you may provide one as well,” a Google spokesperson tells WIRED. During these calls, the assistant’s voice will be the same one used in Gemini Live interactions, even if your preferred Gemini voice has an accent.

Google 表示，该功能最适用于联系商家，但 Gemini 不会拨打某些机构的电话，例如紧急服务部门。话虽如此，你仍然可以要求 Gemini 拨打特定号码。例如，如果你的纹身师在网络上信息较少，Google 发言人告诉《连线》杂志：“Gemini 会尝试搜索电话号码，但你也可以自行提供。”在这些通话中，助手的声音将与 Gemini Live 互动中使用的声音保持一致，即使你偏好的 Gemini 语音带有口音。

Call for Me expands on Google’s suite of smart calling features on Pixels and Android. The Phone app can already screen incoming calls and block robocalls and telemarketers. Hold for Me lets the assistant listen for when the hold music ends and a live person is on the other end; it alerts you to pick up the phone when it’s finally your cue. Direct My Call can display the different choices in an automated phone menu before they’re spoken, so you can tap nine to reach a live person and skip the recorded voice reading out the whole list. It even has real-time Scam Detection, alerting you when it thinks the person on the other end is scamming you.

“Call for Me”扩展了 Google 在 Pixel 和 Android 上的智能通话功能套件。电话应用已经可以筛选来电并拦截骚扰电话和推销电话。“Hold for Me”功能可以让助手监听等待音乐何时结束、真人何时接听；当轮到你通话时，它会提醒你接听电话。“Direct My Call”可以在自动语音菜单播放前显示不同选项，这样你就可以直接点击数字 9 转接人工服务，跳过录音语音的完整列表播报。它甚至具备实时诈骗检测功能，当系统认为对方可能在进行诈骗时会向你发出警告。

Voice assistants handling phone calls is a little more accepted today than back in the Duplex days. Call screening features abound—whether on a Pixel, Samsung, or iPhone, onboard assistants routinely intercept unknown callers to ask why they’re calling.

与 Duplex 时代相比，如今人们对语音助手处理电话的接受度更高了。通话筛选功能随处可见——无论是在 Pixel、三星还是 iPhone 上，内置助手都会例行拦截未知来电并询问对方的来意。

But these kinds of features—much like hyped-up AI translation features—can often fall short. Calls are unpredictable, and the person on the other end may hang up, assuming it’s just another spam call. What happens if Gemini doesn’t understand a person’s accent all that well? Will it trap the clerk in an endless loop of asking them to repeat themselves? And if the shop doesn’t have the tool you need, does the bot know how to bow out politely—or just cut the line?

但这类功能——就像被大肆宣传的 AI 翻译功能一样——往往不尽如人意。通话具有不可预测性，对方可能会因为认为这是骚扰电话而直接挂断。如果 Gemini 听不太懂对方的口音会怎样？它会陷入让对方不断重复的死循环吗？如果商店没有你需要的工具，机器人知道如何礼貌地结束对话，还是会直接挂断？

“That is exactly what we want to continue testing,” the Google spokesperson says. “With this experiment, we look forward to users testing a variety of cases, so that we can continue to improve the feature across accents and noisy environments.” And yes, Google says Gemini will “politely” hang up if the business can’t accommodate your needs.

“这正是我们想要继续测试的内容，”Google 发言人表示。“通过这次实验，我们期待用户测试各种场景，以便我们能够持续改进该功能在不同口音和嘈杂环境下的表现。”此外，Google 确认，如果商家无法满足你的需求，Gemini 会“礼貌地”挂断电话。

It still points to a future where robots may take over these kinds of business phone calls altogether. Businesses are also experimenting with artificial-intelligence tools to interface with customers, like local California pizza chain Pizza My Heart, which lets you text its Jimmy the Surfer chatbot to order pizza.

这依然指向了一个未来：机器人可能会完全接管这类商务电话。企业也在尝试使用人工智能工具与客户对接，例如加州当地的比萨连锁店 Pizza My Heart，它允许你通过短信向其“Jimmy the Surfer”聊天机器人订购比萨。

It doesn’t seem too far off that you’ll ask your phone to call a restaurant, and the restaurant’s AI will answer. The machines are talking to each other, except they’re just debating whether you want the stuffed crust.

或许在不久的将来，当你要求手机给餐厅打电话时，接听的将是餐厅的 AI。机器与机器之间正在进行对话，只不过它们讨论的仅仅是你是否想要芝心饼底。