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 within the Gmail app. Google rolled out the brand new feature, Gmail Q&A, on Thursday to users who pay for Gemini, in keeping with a blog postand announced the feature could be coming to iOS devices.

With Gmail Q&A, users can access Google Gemini within the Gmail app as a private 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 go looking for specific details, similar to asking Gemini, “How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?”

Of course, you’ll need to bear with occasional hallucinations that plague even the very best AI models when using this feature, so perhaps don’t trust every little thing it tells you.

Traditionally, in the event you wanted to seek out information in your Gmail, you would use the search bar at the highest of Google. That’s not going away, however the Gemini button will likely be added next to the search bar. This is all a part of Google’s paradigm shift away from search and toward AI chat. Instead of locating the unique email through search, Gmail is pushing users to have an AI chatbot summarize the data they’re searching for. However, it’s going to 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, within the top-right corner of the app. For now, the Gmail Q&A feature only has access to your emails, but in the long run, Google says it’s going to hook up with 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, a 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 persuade users that the expensive monthly subscription costs for Gemini are price it. The company can also be adding Gemini to all of its existing products, including Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar and more — but it surely all comes at a price. Thus far, these AI products are Google’s best shot at generating revenue off of Gemini.