Google’s Gemini 3.8 Live adds real-time animated avatar for Enterprise users

Google’s Gemini 3.8 Live update introduces a real-time animated avatar feature called Live Avatar, designed to provide a visual representation of the AI during conversations. The avatar lip-syncs and displays facial expressions in response to user input, aiming to make interactions feel more natural.

The feature is currently available only to Gemini Enterprise customers, limiting broader access during its initial rollout. Google states that Live Avatar can transition between the 97 languages it supports without degrading video fidelity or introducing visual drift, addressing concerns about consistency in multilingual use cases.

A demonstration shared by Google shows the Live Avatar speaking in both English and Japanese, with mouth animations aligning accurately to the spoken words in each language. The avatar can also display on-screen information while speaking, enhancing its utility during conversations.

Organizations using Live Avatar will have access to a library of preset avatars, and Google allows them to create custom avatars to suit their branding or use-case needs. Output generated by the Live Avatar includes an invisible SynthID watermark, which Google describes as a safeguard to "respect identity" and mitigate potential misuse.