Gmail’s upgrades are here.
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Updated on Jan. 13 with further analysis into Google’s upgrade decision.
It’s decision time for more than 2 billion users of the world’s most popular email platform. And you do need to actually make a decision before the runaway AI train makes that decision for you. You will now be opted into a raft of new upgrades that process and analyze your data. Once that happens, there’s no turning back.
If you’re a Gmail user, you’ll have seen “Gmail is entering the the Gemini era.” This is not new — it’s just rolling out to all of you. “Starting today, everyone can use Help Me Write to polish emails or draft them from scratch. There are also new Suggested Replies which use the context of your conversation to offer relevant, one-click responses.”
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This upgrade will come to you by region and language — the latest iteration of Google’s Gmail land grab. “Many of these improvements are made possible by Gemini 3. These new capabilities begin rolling out today in the U.S. to Gmail users as well as Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. We’re starting with English and excited to roll out more languages and to more regions in the coming months.”
This direction of travel is well trodden. Gmail’s AI upgrades have been coming piece by piece, changing how you sort and search your emails, helping you write and edit emails and replies, leading towards the unified “AI Inbox” Google has also announced.
As I have warned with each of those iterations, just keep in mind that Google cloud-processing your inbox raises security and privacy concerns. “We hope you like more AI in your Gmail inbox,” The Register says, “because Google is ‘bringing Gmail into the Gemini era.’ It’ll be on by default, but the good news is that you can disable it.”
Navigate to Settings > General and uncheck the various “Smart features.” Remember, you can’t have the innovative add-ons without saying yes to Google’s cloud-based AI.
BoingBoing goes further. “Outside the world of open-source computing, it’s getting pretty hard to escape artificial intelligence being jammed down our throats for even the most banal tasks. Google’s Gmail was already awful — it watches what you type, what you buy, and who you correspond with, all in the name of monetization. Somehow, they’ve found a way to make it even worse: you’re no longer expected to read the messages that folks send you. AI will do that light lift for you.”
This new AI “threat,” The Register says, ”sees the company expanding the reach of a trio of inbox AI features that were previously only available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. You know — the folks who actually wanted the stuff.”
Despite all the warnings, the reality is that almost all users will ignore calls for caution and rush to adopt the exciting new upgrades. This is the story of AI thus far, and Gemini is soaring as a consequence of Google’s accelerated land grab. The privacy warnings are out there, though, for anyone wanting to balance the pros and cons before deciding.
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While “a lot of the expected AI slop features are here,” XDA-Developers says, “where things get interesting is when it comes to the AI Inbox and Smart Overviews. Instead of a top-down list of emails like you’re used to, AI Inbox creates a personalized briefing with a list of to-dos, short briefings that summarize emails, and shifts emails you need to pay attention to the most to the top of your inbox. The feature is rolling out first to ‘trusted testers’ in the U.S. that are using consumer Gmail accounts.”
There is still an escape route — at least for now, says The Register. “To avoid dealing with future forced AI insertion into your email business, it’s also not a bad idea to check out a standalone email application like Thunderbird, or the built-in email client in your operating system, all of which support Gmail and don’t require dealing with an ever-changing web interface to access your messages.”