Google is beginning to roll out more Gemini AI features to Gmail, including a new AI Inbox. The new Inbox view will give you a snapshot of the most important content from your emails, according to Gemini, so you can get to the good stuff without having to sift through countless emails first.
Gmail’s new AI features are a part of Google’s larger push to get Gemini into virtually every product the tech giant makes, though you can disable them in settings — as long as you don’t mind losing a few other features along the way.
It’s not just Google. OpenAI and Microsoft are taking similar measures — Microsoft is revamping Copilot as an AI companion, and Open AI has its own AI web browser — and the industry trends overall are certainly moving in the same direction.
AI Overviews in Gmail Search will allow people to find emails and information using natural language queries.
Google is making some AI features freely available to everyone and introducing other new features for its paid Google One subscribers. Read on to learn everything new that’s coming to your Gmail inbox.
Free AI features on the way
Let’s start with the free features that will come to all consumers who have a Gmail account, whether they access it through the web or via iOS or Android.
Suggested replies with personalization: Gmail users are likely familiar with Smart Replies, which appear as suggestions when they’re replying to an email. These suggestions have been serviceable but rarely perfect, requiring significant edits. The updated version uses AI smarts to better understand the context of the conversation and to offer suggested replies using your personal style and tone.
AI Overviews (thread summaries): These aren’t the AI Overviews that took over the top of your Google search, but summarizations of email threads meant to show you what’s most important from the conversation without you having to read every single reply.
Help Me Write: Help Me Write lets you draft an entire email using a single prompt to Gemini, which could come in handy when there’s a lot of specificity that needs to be relayed, and you need help finding the words.
AI features for paid users
Google also announced a few new features specifically for paid subscribers. Here’s what you can expect when they arrive in your inbox.
AI Overviews for Gmail Search
This is a feature with serious power behind it, especially when you’re trying to find a specific piece of information and aren’t sure how to surface it. Google will let you use natural language to kick off a search through conversations you’ve had with others, look at past online purchase orders and everything in between to provide a summary.
Proofread
Proofread provides one-click fixes for grammar, structure and word choice when writing your emails.
Proofread is a straightforward feature that will stay on the lookout for grammar, conciseness, word choice and sentence structure to provide a one-click fix when you’re crafting emails.
Both AI Overviews and Proofread will be available for Google One Ultra and Pro subscribers, starting in the US and for the English language, with wider availability to follow.
AI Inbox
Google’s AI Inbox in Gmail puts whats most important to you front and center.
Easily the biggest new feature for Gmail is the AI Inbox view, which provides a streamlined experience by putting what’s most important front and center. AI Inbox will initially roll out to people enrolled in Google’s Trusted Tester program, with wider availability to follow.
AI Inbox is broken into two key sections:
Priorities: Your most important emails will be surfaced here, along with time-sensitive action items, due dates and more.
Catch me up: A recap of emails and events you should be aware of that don’t require immediate attention. Reservations, online orders and deliveries will be found here.
Given that it’s in a testing period, AI Inbox will likely evolve based on feedback from testers.
How to turn off the new AI features in Gmail
If you’re uninterested in any of the AI features that are coming to your inbox, you can disable them. But it’s not that easy. Opting to disable the features will also turn off other features that you might find useful. For example, disabling Smart features in Gmail will remove the category options (Social, Promotions, Updates) in your Inbox, leaving you with a mass of emails in one long list. You’ll also need to sacrifice features like Google Calendar pulling events and invitations from your Gmail emails.
If you’re determined to avoid AI in Gmail and can live with the loss of additional features, here’s how to turn them off.
- Sign in to your Gmail account
- Click the settings icon
- Click See all settings
Under the General tab:
- Disable Smart features by unchecking the box next to, “Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet”
- Then scroll down to Google Workspace smart features section directly below
- Click Manage Workspace smart feature settings
- Toggle smart features in Google Workspace to off
That should be all you need to do, but for good measure, you might want to toggle Smart features in other Google products as well. In our tests, some of us still continued to receive the Help me Write feature prompts after disabling everything, so your mileage may vary.