Google Said It Had Native Function Calling. I Tested It.

Google released Gemma 4 E4B with a specific claim: native function calling. "Enhanced coding and agentic capabilities," the model card said. "Native function-calling support, powering highly capable autonomous agents." 4.5 billion effective parameters. Apache 2.0. Runs on a laptop. 50 tokens per second on my Mac Mini M4. I wanted to believe it. The promise of a local model that could actually use tools — not hallucinate tool calls, not ignore them, but use them — is something I've been chasing...