Google wants Gemini to help you respond to emails in Gmail for Android

What you need to know

• Google previously announced it is bringing Gemini to Gmail for Google One AI Premium subscribers.
• Now, it appears that Google is trying out AI-generated replies from Gemini in the Gmail app for Android.
• Users can tap a reply to edit and send it or let Google know if the responses are bad. Currently, the feature is hidden behind a few developer flags.

After experimenting with Gemini integration in Google Workspace, Google appears to be testing AI-generated replies in the Gmail app for Android. Earlier this year, Google announced it was making AI-based features available to Google One AI Premium subscribers in beta. A new implementation of Gemini in the Gmail app has now surfaced, offering three reply suggestions from Gemini for each of your emails.

Android code expert AssembleDebug was able to enable the feature in the Gmail app, and shared the findings with PiunikaWeb. Google refers to the tool as "reply suggestions from Gemini," the feature works after flipping some developer flags in Gmail. Once enabled, Gemini can analyze the contents of the email a Gmail user received and come up with three reply suggestions that make sense in context. In some cases, these AI-generated responses from Gemini can be as long as a full sentence or two. 

You can act on the suggestions by tapping one of the AI-generated options, which will move its contents to the compose field. After that, you can press the send button to finish your reply. However, you might want to edit the message or add more, possibly after the Gemini-suggested response is moved to the compose field. 

Gemini has already appeared in Gmail but in a different way. Google One AI Premium subscribers can get help creating an email with Gemini, although this functionality is in beta. Help me write in Workspace Labs is another way for users to leverage AI to write messages in Gmail. Compared to these two options, the "reply suggestions from Gemini" serve a different purpose entirely. These suggestions are intended to be quick, pre-written replies that can be sent in as little as two taps in the Gmail app for Android.

Like many implementations of Gemini, Google wants your feedback when using its AI tools. In some cases, Google will show a "bad suggestions?" action item underneath the suggested replies from Gemini. Tapping on that text will give you the chance to let Google know when the AI-generated replies in Gmail have missed the mark.

Though the suggested replies from Gemini are available now after manually enabling developer flags, we don't know when they might be publicly released.