Gemini side panel expanding to more Gmail and Drive users in Labs

Ben Schoon | May 22 2024 - 12:35 pm PT

As announced at Google I/O 2024, Gemini is now more widely available to users of Gmail, Google Drive, and other Workspace products.

Over the past year, Google has been working to integrate its Gemini AI across its various products. That includes Android, Search, and more. Workspace products such as Gmail and Drive have seen some AI offerings such as “Help me write,” but the new side panel is perhaps the most useful addition to date.

Now powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro, the new side panel in Workspace apps allows users to employ the AI to dig through their files and emails to summarize, aggregate, and provide answers using the data in their accounts. This takes advantage of Gemini 1.5 Pro’s expanded context window which can use up to 1 million tokens – tokens are a measurement of the amount of data an AI can analyze and use at a given time.

When announcing the side panel last week, Google touted useful benefits such as summarizing long emails, asking questions that the AI answers using emails you’ve sent and received, and using information or data from Docs or PDFs in Drive when writing an email.

One particularly compelling example was showing Gemini’s side panel being used to summarize points from emails received from a school over the course of a few weeks and pulling the main points from a recorded meeting on Google Meet.

Google previously said that the side panel would be available as soon as May 14 for those enrolled in Labs, and it now seems to be widely available. Google first started rolling out these features as the Duet AI side panel starting in February, but this wider rollout brings Gemini branding into the fold alongside some UI tweaks.

We’re seeing Gemini’s new side panel in Gmail, Drive, Docs, and other Workspace products as of today. This does require, though, that you are enrolled in Workspace Labs. If you’re already enrolled, Gemini is likely appearing on the side panel. Google will show a large pop-up when the functionality goes live on your account as pictured below.

You can sign up for Workspace Labs now to get access. Signing up should grant access to the Gemini side panel almost immediately, but your results may vary.

Google will be bringing the side panel to add paid subscribers of Google One AI Premium and paying Gemini for Workspace customers in June. Those in the Gemini for Workspace Alpha program should also be seeing it as of this week.