Gemini side panel rolling out to Google Chat for Workspace

Abner Li | Nov 1 2024 - 9:59 am PT

Following Gmail, Drive, and Docs/Sheets/Slides, the Gemini side panel is now available in Google Chat if you’re a paid Workspace subscriber.

Tap the sparkle icon in the top-right corner of chat.google.com to open a side panel. Capabilities include:

Summarize a space or conversation

“Summarize this conversation.”
“What are the key takeaways in this conversation?”
After an initial summary is generated, you can ask for a longer summary, “Give me a detailed summary of [topic] discussed in this space.”

Generate a list of action items from that space or conversation

“What are the action items in this conversation?”
“Are there any action items for me in this conversation?”
“Summarize [person’s] action items in this space”

Answer specific questions about that space or conversation

“What did [person] say about the timeline extension in this space?”
“What’s the decision on the project discussed in this conversation?”

At launch, Gemini can only take action “in the conversation that you are currently viewing.” It does not “summarize or analyze context across your entire Chat conversation history, your Gmail inbox or your Drive files.”

This is rolling out over the coming weeks to:

Gemini Business and Enterprise add-on
Gemini Education and Education Premium add-on

Meanwhile, Google Chat on the web now lets you pick between Comfortable and Compact modes. The latter is more dense with: Message bubbles that are aligned in the same direction for both sender and recipient, Wider message bubbles, and Padding in the left bar, conversation list, and home. Go to Settings > Density > Compact.