Google pushing Gemini into Gmail, but you can turn it off

We hope you like more AI in your Gmail inbox, 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.  The threat, issued on Thursday by Google's VP of product Blake Barnes, sees the company expanding the reach of a trio of inbox AI features that were …

[IGotOut]

Hands up who didn't see this coming?

Anyone?

[Pickle Rick]

Re: Hands up who didn't see this coming?

Tarantino did it better. Top cinematography...

*hands up and/(x)or down* not sure if Boole roolz anymore.... Shirley?

[Edited :)]

[gv]

Re: Hands up who didn't see this coming?

I've had "smart" features turned off for a long time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hands up who didn't see this coming?

> I've had "smart" features turned off for a long time.

The article is talking about Google's AI snippets though

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

Re: Hands up who didn't see this coming?

I thought I had also turned them off, but surprise they were on. And now they are not.

Thanks to El Reg for their public service!

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Re: Hands up who didn't see this coming?

Been there, done that, was a roadie on the tour.

"Smart" features are the first things I look for in any app's configuration. . . so I can turn them off.

[Tron]

The killer app of the AI age will be...

...the one that turns it all off.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Re: The killer app of the AI age will be...

I think that's called "chucking it into the bin."

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Just checked my Smart "Features" horse shit . As I suspected: turned off yonks ago.

They're still off and I'll be checking every so often.

Trust? I've heard of it.

[Rory B Bellows]

"The data is processed to give you an answer, and it never leaves that secure boundary."

I was worried there for a second that it could potentially leave that secure boundary. Thankfully that will NEVER happen.

[cd]

Can Gemini tell you when someone's lying?

[Not Yb]

No

Ha, I asked it, and it gave me a 300+ word response, including details about how and why it can't really tell. I will summarize: "No"

[Tron]

Re: No

You realise that you just summarised content for an AI. A first for humanity?

[hitmouse]

Turned off the useless, con fusing and error-prone package tracking feature, which apparently also requires disabling all the smart features.

That hasn't stopped any of those features running. As is becoming increasingly common, platform settings UI is not actually connected to the platform settings. I'm looking at you Microsoft too.

[Blackjack]

I already had disabled Gmail smart features but this was still informative, thank you.

[Alumoi]

or the built-in email client in your operating system..

Like, you know, gmail? THE default email client in every freaking Android phone? Or Chromebook?

[AndrueC]

Re: or the built-in email client in your operating system..

What's your point? Other clients are available. I used to use K9 but after it went a bit wobbly while transitioning between networks I switched to AquaMail.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: or the built-in email client in your operating system..

Roughly a third of Android phones worldwide are made by Samsung, who replace Gmail as the default with their own mail program. They don't seem to have rammed their bloody-awful Bixby into it yet but give it time...

[Irongut]

Re: or the built-in email client in your operating system..

No they don't. All my Samsung phones since the original Galaxy S have come with the Google GMail client installed and neither of my current Samsung phones have any Samsung Mail client installed.

[awomanmanhasaname]

They can't afford this stuff for free (or paid) users. So what's the point?

[Sebastian A]

You can tell they know nobody wants this

That's why they're hitching it to other features. "Oh you wanna turn off the slop bucket? Hope you didn't use tabs or sorting..."

[Not Yb]

Re: You can tell they know nobody wants this

The only way I could get Yahoo Mail to turn it off was to go back to the 'classic' email client. Wonderful mis-feature, these summaries that I can't turn off.

[original_rwg]

Privacy

"For those worried about the privacy of their Gmail content....." Er, that ship has long since sailed.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Privacy

It's better not to be on it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Privacy

> It's better not to be on it.

Barely.

I'm not on it, in the sense that I do not have, never had, a Google account. But look at your mailbox and I'll be surprised if at least 50% of your correspondents are not using GMail in one way or another. The other 50% will be using Outlook.

So, provided that you correspond with other people via email, whether you have Google / Microsoft accounts makes very little difference to your privacy (recall that emails are unencrypted at rest).

[Not Yb]

If this is anything like Yahoo's 'AI summary' feature... double the time it takes to read email.

Yahoo got the summary wrong often enough that I'd find myself reading the summary, and then reading the email more critically to see what the summary got wrong 'this time'.

It took more mental effort to verify the summary than it would have to just read the email, and given the state of AI, you need to verify the summary every time it's even slightly important.

[chartupdate]

Extraordinary

Funny how so many readers of an online tech magazine turn out to be paranoid Luddites. Are you sure you are in the right place guys?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Extraordinary

We've seen the bodies* get buried in the rush to deliver, thanks to our overlords, the manglement.

I for one can't wait to get out of the business - what was an enjoyable and rewarding profession is fast becoming a daily drudge

*race to the bottom, going for minimum viable product

[vtcodger]

Re: Extraordinary

Just because one thinks the tech universe is being run by irresponsible sociopaths doesn't mean one is crazy. And, by the way, the Luddites were right. The machines devastated their cozy cottage textile industry. And there's probably one huge difference. The machines actually worked and were economically viable. There are precious few signs either is true of AI.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Extraordinary

Two favourite quotes about being paranoid:

"The price of safety is eternal paranoia. Vigilance is not enough."

"A paranoid might be defined as someone who has some idea as to what is actually going on."

[Irongut]

Re: Extraordinary

"Just 'coz you ain't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you." - Steve Earle

[Brl4n]

Re: Extraordinary

you have much to learn :\

[sarusa]

Re: Extraordinary

Is it really paranoid when Google is explicitly fucking evil?

I mean, technically, yes, it's paranoia even if they really are out to get you. But there is absolutely no question at this point they are 100% evil and I would rather not be their bitch unlike you 'NFTs are the future!' guys?

[LybsterRoy]

Re: Extraordinary

I think you are a Luddite if you oppose some beneficial to the majority of humanity. How does this begin to describe anyone, techie or otherwise, who is opposing so call AI?

On the other hand - brilliant sarcasm.

[SundogUK]

Re: Extraordinary

Rather that than a Google FANBOI!

[TrickParadox]

Re: Extraordinary

If AI can even do 10% of what AI bros claim it can do, why are you wasting time on typing this comment when you could instead be getting buckets of money by selling useful little apps. Somehow we're the luddites, and yet you're no better off than us. Enjoy the high RAM prices.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Extraordinary

Welcome.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Extraordinary

> Funny how so many readers of an online tech magazine turn out to be paranoid Luddites.

I do actually agree with you. Mind, press comment sections in general are bottom of the barrel unless someone has found a pick and a shovel.

You will also find that there's probably less than fifty names that keep coming up in 99% of comments, suggesting that those who comment are a tiny minority of the readership, and probably not the most productive. I will also hazard a guess that many are retired or nearing retirement.

Mind, those who work in tech tend to be mistrustful of technology (and rightly so!) and that's always been the case since I've started frequenting these pages, now nearly thirty years ago. But it is also true that the quality of the commentary here peaked probably around 20-25 years ago and has since become increasingly dumb, as has the coverage itself since Haines was forced to quit for health reasons in 2016. Nowadays the register is nothing but just another boring news aggregator.

Myself, I only come here to shitpost when I'm really, really bored out of my mind, which is about twice per year. Most of the time I do not even read the articles unless it's the BOFH or Liam.

So yeah, your description is quite accurate.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Extraordinary

In fact, twenty years ago if you had said the commentorship here were a bunch of paranoid Luddites, you would have been up voted and thanked for the compliment ("that's the nicest thing I've been called this week").

Younger generations have not yet learned the dangers of taking oneself too seriously.

[stiine]

Gpod.

I already don't sort email by type or use tabs. So it will only increase the size of the blob of code used for the UI.

[Sora2566]

So when they told us that there was no need to turn off Smart Features, there was no AI functionality linked to it, that didn't take long to become untrue, huh?

[Brl4n]

The execs have SFB. I'm non surprised and yet surprised they suck this much when they were such a ray of sunshine 20 years ago.

Need to get completely off Google. They've been a liability for years and I've been putting it off but this is just simply wrong. Android is getting worse every year as well. It's so sad and derepressing how low these companies have fallen along with the rest of corporations. It's simply mad.

[Sleep deprived]

Can Google AI fix programmed stupidity?

- setup a default signature in Gmail

- write an email and edit its signature (ex. remove your last name, add your address)

- close that email to save it as a draft

- open that draft in edit mode and your signature edits are gone

Now, tell me how many Google AIs are needed to fix that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Can Google AI fix programmed stupidity?

That is arguably at least logical. Not that it's not also arguably a bug.

The logic is, the draft is saved without the signature, so edits to the signature are only "saved" once a message is sent and therefore complete.

[Sleep deprived]

Re: Can Google AI fix programmed stupidity?

The signature gets added by Gmail as soon as you open the edit window. After that, you should be free to do whatever with the email and save it as a draft, not to see your changes overwritten when you reopen it next.

I reported this bug to Gmail a few times, but the AI reviewing comments doesn't see the problem...

[sarusa]

It really is time to move to some place like Proton

About a year ago I saw where the google shit train was going and finally moved my email and docs - I had been thinking I should do this for about 3 years, finally did it.

I moved to Proton Mail / Docs. And YES, I cannot lie, it was a month of HELL, logging into everything and tediously moving them over to my proton.me account.

But at this point I think it was totally worth it. I am so happy to have everything on Proton instead of Google, and I do occasionally go check my gmail account but it's just 100+ shit messages I don't give a single eff about. I can actually easily say 'move everything from this sender to this folder' which Google would NOT without explicitly writing a rule (and then sometimes ignoring) because they were sure their AI would take care of it (and it did not). And I know Google is no longer training on anything I actually care about and there is no 'AI' and I'm not subject to their whims and pure evil.

So please, you don't need to move to Proton, and it will be a month of HELL, but please move off of fucking Google. For your sake and for our sake. You can't pretend you're tech savvy and still have Google as your primary account.

[blu3b3rry]

Re: It really is time to move to some place like Proton

Did the same late last year, I pay for the Proton bundle that includes a VPN and cloud storage, been pretty impressed with it so far. It's also nice to have android apps that aren't constantly trying to ram Gemini features down your throat.

Yes, moving everything was also really tedious, but it's been really worth it in the long run.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: It really is time to move to some place like Proton

At the risk of being 'me too', me too.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: It really is time to move to some place like Proton

I moved from Gmail years ago.

I'm not sure whether Proton allows you to have your own domain but that's been my approach for a long time. It allowed me to move ISPs (the ISP email service is a big lock-in trap) and also to move MSP supplier and domain registrar. It also allows for multiple email addresses so that anyone leaking addresses is instantly identifiable and spammers dealt with. There are a few residual addresses on hotmail until I get round to changing them; they are forwarded to my domain address.

Current MSP and registrar is, has been for a long time and likely to continue, Mythic Beasts

[sarusa]

Re: It really is time to move to some place like Proton

> I'm not sure whether Proton allows you to have your own domain but that's been my approach for a long time.

This is a very good point. Yes, Proton allows you to bring a custom domain(s) so my email addresses are all at [sarusa].com and if I ever have to move providers again it will be literally 1000x easier next time (just point the custom domain at the new mail service).

I had no idea Mythic Beasts existed, but looks fun, would certainly have considered them.

[Number 39]

Re: It really is time to move to some place like Proton

I want a mail service that I can use plain text and interleaved, preferably one I can (force myself to) use with something like pine.

[JessicaRabbit]

Re: It really is time to move to some place like Proton

I've been meaning to move to Proton for ages now but my email account is also tied to google drive, sheets etc and finding a replacement for that isn't exactly trivial. Not entirely sure I can just switch email over either.

[Chaostrophy]

finally, I love it!

I wanted to turn off the "smart" features, but at least, for a very long time, you couldn't (perhaps that changed?).

But I turn off AI, and it all dies! I'm back to one mailbox to read, instead of 5, so much better, I'm really liking the update.

Until I leave Google for good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google snippets

I have never used Gemini (AFAIK I requires a Google account and I do not have one) but the occasional AI snippets that show on top of search results tend to be hilariously wrong. I don't think I've ever seen one that was useful or insightful; even DDG does (way) better.

What is actual Gemini like?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Google snippets

> What is actual Gemini like?

I'm starting to think none of the opinionated "experts" here actually use the stuff they opine about.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: Google snippets

I'm starting to think none of the opinionated "experts" here actually use the stuff they opine about.

A bit like ketamine — most sane people, and certainly any with a skerrick of pharmocolgy would opine on the inadvisably of using the drug outside the few therapeutic indications. These opinionated "experts" are highly unlikely to have used the drug.

These "AI" applications promise to enhance a person's performance in much the same as Musk says ketamine does his. Nuff said.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how many people are actually paying for the Google AI stuff?... I pay for Google One storage and they offered me 12 months of AI Pro free. I didn't take them up on the offer immediately and they instead gave me an effectively free Chromebook Plus which came with 12 months AI Pro for free. So far the natural language email search is not the promised land I was hoping for.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

I've been giving serious consideration to getting away from Gmail but the prospect of sheer ballache put me right off. This, however. is beginning to look like the straw that broke the camels back.

What's a good, basic email service that includes decent spam filtering? I'm not really up to running my own server though.

[Bebu sa Ware]

sheer ballache

My brain was trying to parse that as Irish gaelic and flicked to a recollection of the activist/writer, Shere Hite from the ~1980s then unaccountably the intended meaning crystalised. ;)

[Bebu sa Ware]

"dealing with an ever-changing web interface"

That was the final straw which meant her indoors was finally prepared to move to a standalone MUA (betterbird.)

So an ill wind that has blown some good.

Also why her desktop has run ClassicShell/OpenShell from Win7 and Android tablet and phone run Nova Launcher.

The Thunderbird workflow is a little different from the GMail web interface but at least it doesn't change with each update.