Gmail users on Android can now chat with Gemini about their emails
Gmail users on Android devices can now chat directly with Google's AI assistant, Gemini, about their emails in the Gmail app. Google rolled out the new feature, Gmail Q&A, on Thursday to users who pay for Gemini, according to a blog post, and announced the feature would be coming to iOS devices.
With Gmail Q&A, users can access Google Gemini in the Gmail app as a personal assistant that can read your entire email inbox. Google says you can ask Gemini to summarize emails by stating things like, “Catch me up on the emails about quarterly planning." You can also use the feature to search for specific details, such as asking Gemini, "How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?"
Of course, you'll have to bear with occasional hallucinations that plague even the best AI models when using this feature, so maybe don't trust everything it tells you.
Traditionally, if you wanted to find information in your Gmail, you could use the search bar at the top of Google. That's not going away, but the Gemini button will be added next to the search bar. This is all part of Google's paradigm shift away from search and toward AI chat. Instead of locating the original email through search, Gmail is pushing users to have an AI chatbot summarize the info they're looking for. However, it will still cite the source email in its answer.
Paying users can access the feature by clicking the black star logo, which has come to represent Gemini across Google's product suite, in the top-right corner of the app. For now, the Gmail Q&A feature only has access to your emails, but in the future, Google says it will connect to files in your Drive account, as well.
In June, Gmail Q&A was rolled out to web users of Gmail who pay for Gemini or Google One AI Premium. These users pay roughly $20 a month for AI features like this, part of Google's product and application layer around Gemini.
It's unlikely that Gmail Q&A will come to free Gmail users anytime soon. Instead, Google is pushing features like Gmail Q&A to convince users that the expensive monthly subscription costs for Gemini are worth it. The company is also adding Gemini to all of its existing products, including Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar and more -- but it all comes at a price. Thus far, these AI products are Google's best shot at generating revenue off of Gemini.
