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Gemini Live

The Gemini Live API lets developers create natural conversations by enabling a two-way WebSocket connection with the Gemini models. The Live API processes data streams in real time. Users can interrupt the AI’s responses with new input, similar to a real conversation. Key features include:

  • Multimodal Streaming: The API supports streaming of text, audio, and video data.
  • Bidirectional Interaction: The user and the model can provide input and output at the same time.
  • Interruptibility: Users can interrupt the model’s response, and the model adjusts its response.
  • Tool Use and Function Calling: The API can use external tools to perform actions and get context while maintaining a real-time connection.
  • Session Management: Supports managing long conversations through sessions, providing context and continuity.
  • Secure Authentication: Uses tokens for secure client-side authentication.

Installation

Section titled “Installation”

Gemini Live is configured as an optional dependency in Strands Agents.

To install it, run:

Terminal window
pip install 'strands-agents[bidi-google]'

Or to install all bidirectional streaming providers at once:

Terminal window
pip install 'strands-agents[bidi-all]'

Usage

Section titled “Usage”

After installing strands-agents[bidi-google], import and initialize the Gemini Live model provider:

import asyncio


from strands.experimental.bidi import BidiAgent
from strands.experimental.bidi.io import BidiAudioIO, BidiTextIO
from strands.experimental.bidi.models import BidiGeminiLiveModel
from strands_tools import stop


from strands_tools import calculator




async def main() -> None:
    model = BidiGeminiLiveModel(
        model_id="gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-09-2025",
        provider_config={
            "audio": {
                "voice": "Kore",
            },
        },
        client_config={"api_key": "<GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY>"},
    )
    # stop tool allows user to verbally stop agent execution.
    agent = BidiAgent(model=model, tools=[calculator, stop])


    audio_io = BidiAudioIO()
    text_io = BidiTextIO()
    await agent.run(inputs=[audio_io.input()], outputs=[audio_io.output(), text_io.output()])




if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Configuration

Section titled “Configuration”

Client Configs

Section titled “Client Configs”

For details on the supported client configs, see here.

Provider Configs

Section titled “Provider Configs”
ParameterDescriptionExampleOptions
audioAudioConfig instance.{"voice": "Kore"}reference
inferenceDict of inference fields specified in the Gemini LiveConnectConfig.{"temperature": 0.7}reference

For the list of supported voices and languages, see here.

Session Management

Section titled “Session Management”

Currently, BidiGeminiLiveModel does not produce a message history and so has limited compatability with the Strands session manager. However, the provider does utilize Gemini’s Session Resumption as part of the connection restart workflow. This allows Gemini Live connections to persist up to 24 hours. After this time limit, a new BidiGeminiLiveModel instance must be created to continue conversations.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

Module Not Found

Section titled “Module Not Found”

The error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'google.genai' means the google-genai dependency is missing. Install it with pip install 'strands-agents[bidi-google]'.

API Key Issues

Section titled “API Key Issues”

Make sure your Google AI API key is properly set in client_config or as the GOOGLE_API_KEY environment variable. You can obtain an API key from the Google AI Studio.

References

Section titled “References”