Gmail for Android could be getting a new Google Gemini AI button
It's fair to say Google hasn't been shy at attempting to stuff its Gemini AI bot into just about every app possible – and the indications are that the Gmail app for Android could be the latest to get an infusion of Gemini's artificial intelligence magic.
This comes from well-known tipster AssembleDebug and Android Authority, and it's based on an APK (Android Application Package) teardown. Essentially, it means digging through the app code to find features that haven't been enabled for the user yet.
New Gemini Button Feature
One of those features is now a Gemini button on the toolbar at the top. Tapping it would bring up a prompt box for Gemini, so you might want to get the AI bot to summarize some of your emails, or draft a reply to a message in your inbox.
This was actually first spotted back in April, although the toolbar button wasn't visible then. It also matches some of the functionality that paying Google Workspace users can already get in Gmail, so it's not much of a surprise seeing it show up for more people.
Benefits of Gemini AI
Gemini AI can clearly be useful when digging through long emails and conversation threads, picking out the key points as needed – though it's important to remember that AI still isn't 100% reliable, and indeed might never be.
If you really, really need to be accurate and on top of something in your inbox, you're still better off reading it for yourself. Humans can make mistakes too, of course, but you understand the people you're emailing with and what they're emailing about – you're not just weighing up probabilities of word combinations.
Future Features
The team at Android Authority was also able to get Gemini AI to change the tone of draft emails, and explain how to complete tasks in Gmail. As yet though, there's no word on when the feature might be going live for users.
For more information, you can read about how Google is 'reimagining' Android to be all-in on AI, or about how Google's Gemini AI app could soon let you sync and control music.
