Google publishes guide to non-blocking voice agent tools in ADK
Overview
Google Developers Blog publishes a guide to building ADK voice agents that keep talking while slow tools run.
The guide covers streaming tools, non-blocking FunctionTool definitions, and response_scheduling modes for delivering results. 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 requires google-adk 2.10.0 or later, the gemini-3.8-live model on the Gemini Enterprise API, and bidirectional live sessions through run_live for streaming tools and live scheduling.
Written by AI from the articles below · updated Oct 19, 12:36 PM ET
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- Google Developers BlogOfficialGoogle shows how to keep a voice agent talking during slow tool calls
AIGoogle 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.
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