Gmail users can now ask Google's Gemini AI to help compose and summarize emails
If you want AI-powered assistance when managing your emails in Gmail, you can now call on Google's Gemini. In a blog post published Monday, Google announced that Gemini is rolling out as an integrated option for Gmail on the web and in the mobile app.
Gemini is available to Google Workspace customers with a Google One AI Premium plan, the Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on, or the Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on. Prior to this rollout, the only way to take advantage of AI features in Gmail was by joining the Google Workspace Lab.
Now, you can ask Gemini to help you respond to an email or summarize an existing email thread. The AI tool can also answer questions and find specific details about emails in your inbox and files saved in your Google Drive.
Also: What is Gemini? Everything you should know about Google's new AI model
In Gmail on the web, Gemini will pop up in a left sidebar nestled next to your emails. In Gmail for iOS and Android, the AI tool should appear in a small window when you tap the subject line of a message. The move follows the recent integration of Gemini in Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Drive.
The sidebar or window gets you started by offering certain suggestions, such as "Summarize this email," "List action items from this email," and "Suggest a reply to this email." Selecting an option for More Suggestions displays other tasks, including "Draft a reply," and "Help me reply." If you're having trouble composing an email, an icon for "Help me write" is also available in the new email window.
Beyond using the suggested requests, you can ask Gemini questions directly. Google gave a few examples you might ask the AI tool: "How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?" or "When is the next team meeting?" In response, Gemini should be able to retrieve the emails that answer your query.
Google has outfitted Gmail with its latest AI model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, which boasts hefty improvements over its predecessor, including a longer context window, better understanding, and faster performance. Gemini 1.5 Pro is able to handle as many as 1 million tokens, a jump from Gemini 1.0's 32,000 tokens. Such an increase is significant, because the more tokens a model can handle, the more its responses are likely to be better informed.
Google is rolling out the Gemini integration now. For Gmail on the web, users on the rapid release schedule should see it over the next couple of days, while those on the scheduled release will have to wait until July 8. For the Gmail mobile app, rapid release and scheduled release users can expect Gemini to appear over the next 15 days.