Google has officially announced that Gmail’s Smart Reply feature will be able to pull context from your Gmail inbox, Google Drive files, and adapt to your personal communication style when answering emails, thanks to the Gemini. Until now, Smart Replies could only suggest short, generic responses based on the email thread you were on.
However, with the help of Gemini’s deeper contextual understanding, which Google refers to as Personal Context, you will be able to create a better reply based on your related documents, prior messages, and even tone preferences. Whether you’re emailing a friend or a colleague, the new feature will help you craft replies that sound exactly like you, no matter how formal or casual.
According to Blake Barnes, VP of Product at Google Workspace, Gemini aims to provide difficult tasks such as digging through threads or documents to find the information you need for your reply. With this, the company hopes to provide more useful responses on a personal level.
The company has confirmed that these smart replies will be made available in English via an alpha test in Google Labs beginning in July. It will be accessible via Gmail on the web, Android, and iOS. It will initially be available to paid subscribers, including Google Workspace plans and Google One AI Premium. It is possible that it will eventually be available to free users, but this has not been confirmed.
Meanwhile, the company has announced that Google Meet will now include real-time speech translation and writing assistance in Google Docs, which can reference linked documents.