Google shows how to keep a voice agent talking during slow tool calls

Google Developers Blog explains how to build voice agents in ADK that keep talking while slow tools run, avoiding long silences during calls.

In its benchmark sales-report workflow on gemini-3.8-live, switching from a blocking tool to a streaming tool cut the time to the agent's first words from 14.4 seconds to 1.2 seconds.

The guide covers streaming tools, non-blocking FunctionTool definitions, and response_scheduling modes for delivering results.