Step away from your computer or phone for a few minutes and you may return to a barrage of notifications about new messages. If you're using Google Chat, you no longer have to go through them all to find out what you missed, thanks to Google's Gemini AI assistant. You can open Gemini from the Google Chat sidebar and ask the AI to summarize the conversation and drill down to the most important parts.
The new feature expands Gemini's presence from other Google Workspace apps like Docs and Drive to Google Chat. If you click the “Ask Gemini” icon at the top of the Google Chat interface, an AI chat window will appear where you can ask about what was said in group chats, direct messages, and spaces.
If you ask the AI to “catch me up,” you'll get a full summary of the conversation, which you can request in bullet points. If it's too short, you can also request a longer summary. You can also ask for more specific details, such as help requests, key takeaways, or other decisions made in the thread. You can even ask about other people's assignments or what a person said about specific topics. The following demo shows how it works.
Gemini Chat
Gemini cannot review your entire conversation history, only the current view. You are also restricted to Google chat. That means no emails or files in Google Drive, even though Gemini would otherwise have a presence and access to those apps. Google claims this is deliberate, as it keeps the focus on the current chat in context without including irrelevant information. Additionally, strictly limiting data sources reduces the risk of Gemini suffering from hallucinations. You also won't be able to access Gemini on Google Chat without a subscription to Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium.
Even with those (likely temporary) availability limits, bringing Gemini to Google Chat fits with how Google is working to integrate Gemini across all of its platforms and services. That includes Gemini Extensions to take on the role of Google Assistant with Google Messages, Maps, and pretty much everything Android does.
