How to consistently start a selfie recording on Samsung phone with Gemini during a traffic stop

I'm definitely NOT the type to get pulled over very often, or at all for that matter, but I wanted to somehow be able to instruct Gemini to start a selfie recording, and it was inconsistent at best till I figured out a few things. To start, I simply said, "Hey Google, start a selfie recording." and it worked straight off… until it didn't. It would sometimes work and sometimes fail and sometimes open the camera but not start recording. This was frustrating, because every time I asked Gemini WHY it didn't do as I asked, it would say it couldn't interact with the camera or there was some error. Then when it would open the camera and not record, it would say it was sorry if I "believed" that it could, but it lacked the ability to start a recording, which it had JUST done previously.

Frustrations aside, I tried several more times and it would tell me it got an error calling the camera, so I asked specifically what instruction it used that failed and it told me it had used "device_controls:record_video". After some sleuthing, I found that Gemini was using the incorrect way to call the camera. I told it to use "device_actions" instead of "device_controls" and it said it would remember that. I even wrote it into the specific instructions for when I said, "I'm getting pulled over.", but it STILL used "device_controls" because it thought it knew better, I guess. It took making a specific instruction to tell it to always use "device_actions" in place of "device_controls" when a command required it to get it to work consistently. If you need to add these types of instructions to your Gemini, go to https://gemini.google.com/saved-info?hl=en-US (in the US I assume) and add those instructions there.

Hopefully this will help someone if they are wanting to trigger a video selfie using Gemini without the "furtive movements" (messing with your phone) that could set off a cop when you get pulled over. I'm specifically using a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra on OneUI 8, and Gemini now consistently opens the selfie camera and starts a 3 second countdown before starting the recording. You can always try adding to the instructions to send a location or text message to someone as well.

NOTE: This may not work if your phone is locked or the screen is off. Gemini will attempt to do it, but it will fail most likely unless your phone is unlocked.