Google published a guide on building non-blocking voice agents with the Agent Development Kit (ADK) and the Gemini Live API, covering streaming tools, non-blocking FunctionTool definitions, and response_scheduling modes (WHEN_IDLE and others). In their benchmark on gemini-3.8-live, switching from a blocking tool to a streaming tool cut time to the agent's first words from 14.4 seconds to 1.2 seconds, keeping the agent conversational while slow tools run in the background.
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What to doIf you build voice agents on the Gemini Live API with ADK, adopt streaming tools or response_scheduling to avoid dead air during slow tool calls.
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