Gmail AI Chatbot Coming Soon to Android(0)

Gmail users on Android devices can now chat with Google's AI assistant, Gemini, about their emails directly within the Gmail app. Google rolled out the new feature, Gmail Q&A, to users who pay to use Gemini on Thursday and announced that it's coming to iOS devices, according to a blog post.

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, when using this feature, you'll have to put up with the occasional hallucination that can happen to even the best AI models, so maybe don't believe everything it tells you.

Traditionally, if you wanted to find information in Gmail, you could use the search bar at the top of Google. That feature isn't going away, but a Gemini button will be added next to the search bar. It's all part of Google's shift from search to an AI chat model.Instead of finding raw emails through search, Gmail encourages users to let the AI chatbot summarize the information they're looking for. However, it will still cite the source email in the 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.

Gmail Q&A is unlikely to be available to free Gmail users anytime soon. Instead, Google is promoting features like Gmail Q&A to convince users that Gemini's expensive monthly subscription fee is 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. So far, these AI products are Google's best chance of generating revenue with Gemini.