Google is reviving its most famous AI demo with a much more capable model. The company has begun testing a new Gemini-powered feature called "Call for Me" that can phone businesses on your behalf, navigate their automated menus, wait on hold, and hold up its end of the conversation, according to a report by TechCrunch.
The feature will initially roll out to Pixel 11 owners in the United States who pay for a Gemini subscription. It also requires the beta version of Google's Phone app for Android, since Google is treating it as an experiment rather than a finished product. For more context on this story, see our ongoing AI industry coverage.
What Call for Me Can Actually Do
Unlike earlier Google calling features, which were limited in scope, Gemini can now share personal information that you approve as part of the call, which Google says allows it to take a broader set of actions. The company says the AI can handle complex tasks like calling a store to ask if a product is in stock, making a restaurant reservation, moving a scheduled appointment to a different date, or placing items on hold.
When it dials, the AI introduces itself, navigates automated phone menus, waits on hold, and then handles the conversation on the other end. Crucially for anyone who has ever stared at a speakerphone wondering how long the queue is, users can watch the call proceed through a live transcript and take over at any time.
There is one detail that will raise eyebrows: Call for Me uses your own personal phone number, with calls dialed directly from your phone. That makes the calls look like they came from you, not from a random AI number, which improves pickup rates but also means businesses and call recipients may not immediately know an AI is on the line beyond whatever introduction Gemini gives.
Following Meta Into the Phone-Calling Arms Race
Google is not moving in a vacuum. TechCrunch notes that AI agents like Meta's Muse and Instinct are now able to make calls on users' behalf, and Google's experiment is its answer to that competition. Automated calling has quietly become a battleground for consumer AI: the phone call is a real-world task with real-world stakes, and it exercises exactly the conversational abilities that the labs are racing to demonstrate.
A Long Lineage, From Duplex to Call for Me
The launch builds on years of experiments with AI-assisted calling at Google. The company startled audiences years ago at its I/O developer conference when it demonstrated Google Assistant calling a salon to make a reservation, complete with little "umm's" and "ahh's" designed to make the conversation sound natural. That demo, Duplex, was as controversial as it was impressive, presaging today's debates about AI disclosure on phone calls.
More recently, Google shipped a series of stepping stones: last year it rolled out "Ask for Me," which let Gemini call businesses to inquire about things like pricing or services. Pixel owners have had access to "Hold for Me" and "Talk to a Live Rep," which navigate phone trees and wait on hold until a human picks up, plus "Direct My Call," which displays the numbers to navigate IVR systems.
What distinguishes Call for Me is agency. Where those features assisted a call you were part of, or gathered simple information, the new feature completes open-ended tasks on your behalf, in a live conversation, using your identity.
Why Google Is Starting Small
Google says it is beginning the experiment at a small scale because "real-world conversations are nuanced," and it needs time to get the feature right before rolling it out more broadly. That caution is telling. A bot that mishears a reservation time or conveys the wrong personal details does not just fail a benchmark, it creates a real-world consequence for the user whose number appeared on the call.
For now, the feature's availability is narrow: Pixel 11 hardware, a paid Gemini subscription, a beta Phone app, and a US address. But as an experiment it marks a notable shift in consumer AI, from models that answer questions to agents that pick up the phone. If Google's history with Hold for Me is any guide, the feature will graduate from experiment to default within a few generations of Pixel hardware, and the question of who, or what, is on the other end of the line will get a lot harder to answer.
The Identity Question Nobody Has Fully Solved
Dialing from your own number is a pragmatic engineering choice, and it creates a genuine trade-off. Calls from unknown numbers get screened or ignored, so a call that looks like it comes from you is far more likely to be answered. But it also means a business may be having what it believes is a customer conversation with an AI it never agreed to talk to. Google's answer so far is Gemini's self-introduction at the start of the call, which is voluntary disclosure by the software rather than a technical marker. Regulators and phone carriers have been circling exactly this territory as AI calling tools spread, and the experiment's small scale buys Google time to see how those conversations land.
The billing model is worth noting too: Call for Me is gated behind a paid Gemini subscription, which makes it one of the clearest examples of consumer AI agents moving from free demos to features people are asked to pay for. If the experiment works, the phone call may become the first place most people regularly encounter an AI agent acting with their identity, their money, and their permission.
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