Gmail For Android Will Soon Gain A “Summarize This Email” Button
We’ve all been in a situation where we want to read an email, but simultaneously don’t want to because it is simply too lengthy. Maybe it’s from your boss or maybe it is just a newsletter, but we’re all busy people and time is money, so it’d be great if there was some way to just get the gist of the email without needing to peruse the entire thing…
Well, thanks to PiunikaWeb and AssembleDebug, we know that Gmail is about to swoop in to solve that problem, with the help of Gemini, Google’s generative AI model. Digging into a recent version of the Gmail app revealed a currently inactive button near the top of an email titled “Summarize this email”. It doesn’t work right now even if you get it to show up, but what it is intended to do seems pretty self-explanatory.
There’s also no timeline on exactly when we can expect this to show up on our Android phones, but I wouldn’t expect it to take more than one or two months with the way Google is aggressively pushing out AI features that they’ve integrated into their apps and services.
Gemini For Workspace Can Do Something Similar, But It’s Not The Same
But you might be shouting at your screen right now, “There’s already an email summarization feature using Gemini! What are you on about?” You’re not wrong, but that feature is not exactly the same for several reasons.
The feature you’re thinking about is accessible through the Gemini for Workspace suite of features. However, the major thing is that this feature is only available from the Gmail app on your computer and can’t be used for a single lengthy email. Instead, it only comes into play for email threads that have more than two replies already. The idea is that it can bring you up to speed on the conversation being had without you needing to scroll back in the thread to understand what is being talked about.
Gemini for Workspace can do a bit more than that too, if you’re interested. If you’re lost for words, it can help suggest what you can respond with (in acceptable corporate speak too), as well as help you search for info that might be somewhere in previous emails that you have as well as files in your Google Drive. It’s easy to see how all of this can be helpful in a working environment.
