Google launches 'Call for Me' beta, letting Gemini make phone calls to businesses on behalf of Pixel 11 users

Google has launched "Call for Me," a beta feature that lets Gemini place phone calls to businesses on a user's behalf, such as checking stock or booking appointments. It is limited to Pixel 11 phones in the US, English only, requires a Gemini subscription, and needs enrollment in the public beta of the Phone by Google app. Gemini can navigate automated menus, hold, and converse live, with a transcript shown and a takeover option; it will not call emergency services but can call numbers the user supplies.

This affects a narrow slice of consumers right now: Pixel 11 owners in the US who pay for Gemini and opt into a beta app. For that group it could save time on routine calls, and for businesses it means more automated callers on the other end of the line. The bigger signal is directional, not immediate: Google is trying this capability again a decade after Duplex, now on stronger LLMs, which is worth tracking as a leading indicator for how fast AI voice agents move into everyday consumer use.

The "successor to Duplex" framing and talk of a future where machines talk to machines is speculation, not evidence of what this version actually delivers differently. WIRED's own reporting notes accent-recognition failures and businesses hanging up, which undercuts the polished narrative; the four stacked restrictions (one phone model, one country, one language, two required subscriptions) mean this is not yet evidence of mainstream capability, just a controlled beta.

1. 01Whether Google expands Call for Me beyond Pixel 11 US English within 6-12 months, or quietly lets it stall like Duplex did
2. 02Independent user reports or reviews on real success rates for tasks like bookings and stock checks, not just Google's demo cases
3. 03Whether competitors (Apple, Samsung, OpenAI) announce comparable agentic calling features in response, signalling this is becoming a category rather than a one-off feature