Google’s new experimental Gemini Intelligence feature makes the phone calls you’d rather avoid

Published Sep 24, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Sign in to your XDA account Summary Gemini's "Call for Me" handles the entire call, including menus, hold time, and conversation. The feature feels dystopian and requires a lot of trust, but it shows live transcripts and lets you take over at any time. An early preview of Call for Me on the Pixel 11 in the U.S. for Gemini paid subscribers in Phone by Google beta; wider release unclear. I dislike talking on the phone, but what I really hate is getting stuck on hold when I have a simple, menial task to take care of, like rescheduling a doctor's appointment or booking servicing for my car. With that in mind, Direct My Call could be the AI-powered Gemini Intelligence feature I've been waiting for — though at the same time, it's also pretty weird.The experimental new feature, Call for Me, builds on Hold for Me and Direct My Call by handling the entire call for you, including menu navigation and speaking on your behalf. It's a bit dystopian and requires a tremendous amount of trust from both the user and the person on the other end of the call, but I can also see it being genuinely useful for simple tasks. Google offers up examples like checking a hardware store's stock of a specific part, reserving a seat at a restaurant, or shifting a haircut appointment to another day. According to the tech giant, Gemini makes the call for you, introduces itself, navigates automated phone menus, waits on hold, and even handles the entire conversation with the person at the other end. Google says trust and control are key to Call for Me It still feels rather dystopian, though Google emphasizes that "you remain in control at all times" and says that a live transcript view is available, too. You can also take over the conversation at any point, though I can see that leading to a rather awkward situation. It's also worth pointing out that the person on the other end taking this kind of service-oriented call, whether it's rescheduling an appointment at the bank or booking a patio table at a restaurant, likely won't have much patience for a robot that's not communicating effectively. It seems like this is something Google has considered, though. "Just as importantly, every phone call connects two sides. For this to work, it has to respect the time of the neighborhood shops and front-desk staff answering the phone. These calls made by Gemini on behalf of the user represent real customers conducting real transactions: booking appointments, placing items on hold, or rescheduling reservations," writes Google in a press release.Call for Me is rolling out in early preview to Gemini paid subscribers who are enrolled in the Phone by Google Public Beta program on the Pixel 11 series in the US. It's unclear when the feature will be released more widely.