Gemini will now automatically summarize your emails unless you opt out
New Gemini summary cards now available in the Gmail app on Android and iOS devices
Why is it never the other way around? I’m sick of EULA updates silently enrolling me into things i never asked for
They are asking for legal trouble anyway, at least in Europe
it says you need to hace smart features on for this to work. I went looking for how to turno it off, but aparentoy in the EU, UK, Japan and others it's off by default
Plus the options are frequently hidden and unclear.
I thought disabling One Drive on my Windows machine would keep it from syncing to the cloud. Nope, it just changed where the files were stored but Windows copies it to One Drive even when One Drive isn't running.
In the case of google, I assume that turning off the Gemini bullshit doesn't have any impact on it copying all the content to their servers even if you don't see it happening.
to shove it in people's faces who would never go out of their way to turn it on. probably like 99% of people.
Maybe the even more important question: Why can you even opt out? Why is this not done on-device, without anything going anywhere to begin with?
I mean, I know the answer, you know the answer, everyone knows the answer. If this was truly privacy preserving, there would be no need to opt out.
It's part of the abuse.
As Louis Rossmann likes to say, this is a rapist mentality.
Ask for forgiveness instead of permission.
A single message now generates 20 different summaries and analyses, requiring a rack of GPUs and a diesel generator.
We're so lucky that electricity is unlimited and free, otherwise it might've caused a serious problem.
Don't worry, this stuff is why companies like Google want to build and run their own nuclear power plants. What could possibly go wrong?
Most email is short. I don't see a need to summarize it. Google is run by idiots and assholes.
Ai will write complicated long mails, you'll need an Ai to summarise it
If an email needs to be summarized, I'm not going to read it anyway.
ive actually used it at work for stuff like "when did Wendy approve the design? did she send it to brian?" when I have 5 different email threads over 3 different organizations, with 10 different respondees. But in personal use I would never.
If mine could do that "find me the approval email for x last week" I'd use it, but if outlook had a decent search I wouldn't need it.
I'd settle for AI clipping out everyone's redundant signatures, .gif logos, comic sans bible quotes, and everything else packed into email that people use as direct messaging. Or my coworkers could just use WebEx for chats instead of emails.
I put a tl;dr sentence or two at the top of any e-mail more than a couple of paragraphs. Sometimes for those too.
Eat more AI! We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on this fucking garbage, so EAT IT! Yeah! It’s in your email! It’s in your car! IT’S IN YOUR TEETH (launch date: Q2 2026)!
You jest, but I've already seen "AI-powered" toothbrushes on shelves. Let's give even more health data to corporate giants!
You go ahead and waste resources on summarizing the 200 emails a day in my spam account, you fucking morons.
I agree fuck Google but also poor earth :(
It's so weird that we have to go through hoops and loops to get rid of this stuff! I was sick of my Android responding to a long press of the power button, meant to shut it down, with a Gemini prompt. Took me an hour to figure out I can't get rid of the function, but I can switch back (for now) to old style Google Assistant.
If you have to force functionality down your users' throat despite them not wanting it, you already lost. Gemini is Google's Clippy, just less iconic and more also-ran.
If you have to force functionality down your users' throat despite them not wanting it, you already lost.
As much as I'd like to think so, they're not stupid, they know what they're doing. They cram it in your face to make sure you know it's there. And most people don't care.
How the hell can they even afford that?! There are so many Gmail users and so many emails a second and Gemini will summarize them all? That sounds so expensive and like a waste of resources
It is, but the bubble mustn't burst or the grifters will stop making money selling "the end of skilled labor" to braindead capitalists.
Google makes a lot of money, and summarising stuff uses a surprisingly small amount of energy. You can do it trivially on-device on a laptop and on plenty of phones.
When it comes to LLMs, training the models is generally the thing that requires ridiculous amounts of energy.
This is dumb as fuck, though. I don't want Google's LLM to miss out critical details in my emails. That shit could be important. If people want this they should opt in.
They probably use a smaller model for summarizing.
Unless I opt out of Gmail? Yep, already done.
Meh. I can’t find a good sub for YouTube and Gmail is my “uh oh did I mess up my email server back”.
I’ve been considering hush mail. I don’t like Europe. I’d rather move to Canadian
More opt outs... Everyone, just opt out of big tech
We should opt into little tech. A guy in Venezuela just trying to buy a couple days food will read your email and summarize it for you!
This made me think of the South Park episode where they're hiring people to replace the Amazon Alexa and stuff.
I run my own email and I have to say I wouldn't recommend it.
The biggest hassle is dealing with either Spamhaus or Microsoft, who apparently at random decide to put my IPs on blacklist, and who provide hurdles to working around this (for Spamhaus) or just say "no" (for Microsoft).
Mega brain move right here. Combined with a multitude of open source web mail clients and ur golden. SOGo and roundcube my beloved.
solid recommendations roundcube is goat
Would having aliases be a good way to bypass when a website denies your emails from your domain (which is known occurrence for who self-hosts their own email system)?
Your new dentist/GP practice when you try to sign up?
@ Thunderbird? What is that?
In reply to all of the complaints here: I've never seen anything about Gemini on my Graphene OS device. 🤷♂️
Ok this is the first step where I feel an actual urge to look for Gmail alternatives. (Been a Gmail user since like 2007.) I'm a desktop-only Gmail user, but I can see where this is going... :/ Also heavy user of Google Drive and Sheets, so it's going to be annoying if I have to replace all of them :/
For me it was: Gmail to Tuta, Drive to Filen.io (some cheap German guys). But Sheets would be the most difficult. Maybe Zoho or Infomaniak? Infomaniak has the complete package IIRC.
thanks, I'll check them out!
Cool, how do I disable this shit feature?
Stop using the shit service.
So this is why I got an email that was completely wrong.
I told a guy I used to work for that I moved and it’s the perfect place to help him and his company.
He replied that he hopes I found a house where I used to live.
wtf it’s like he never read the email at all, now that this AI trash was added, the email makes sense.
I guess he is fucked and doesn’t get the help he needs for his company.
That's ok :) All my important mails go to proton
The only thing I use my Google Account for is my TV. I haven't logged into my gmail in years. And even that is a stretch. I use Jellyfin, and a sideloaded youtube client that doesn't send anything back to Googs.
Where are you? From your comment, I'm sure you live in my house 🤣
The Proton owner is Trump-y. Tuta is another option
Show us the evidence of this claim about "Proton owner". And yes, Tuta is great, I agree on that.
We should also be boycotting businesses that support establishment democrats.
Why would you use Gmail in the first place?
I have been moving away from all of the big name companies for big name products.
It's a shame, because I used to be very supportive of Google.
Ex-Google fan boy here. Been riding the fuck Google wagon for about 7 years now, no regrets, and certain I'm missing out on absolutely nothing. Moving away from all these self-serving BS "tech giants" is the smartest and healthiest move anyone can do.
Do any other email services/clients have a very similar search function? Where I can search for date ranges and email sizes in addition to the more typical operators.
At my workplace I have to deal with Outlook, and it's a pile of crap in comparison.
I have a Google account at work with the domain name of the company. The AI is annoying and I wished they used something else.
Turned off by default in EEA, UK, Japan and Switzerland, for anyone interested (had to login to find out).
Anyone wondering what they have in common: EU (i know its not the same as EEA, there are countries like Iceland non-member of EU but part of EEA and they have their own GDPR through their own Private Act) has GDPR, Japan has APPI, UK has UK-GDPR, Switzerland has FADP
Whats intriguing is that Canada has DCIA and Brazil has LGPD and I don't see it being mentioned to be turned off by default in either countries
End users: To access Gemini summary cards, users need to have smart features and personalization smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet and smart features in Google Workspace turned on. Visit the Help Center to learn more about collaborating with Gemini in Gmail.
Sounds like it's an opt in, what am I missing
If you already had smart replies or similar enabled (they were available before Gemini hit the scene) then you have to go opt out.
That makes sense
Sounds like it’s an opt in, what am I missing
Because it's a clear step on the enshittification slide. It's opt in for now.
FWIW I use Fastmail and it works great.
And that's why I set up forwarding from Gmail and Outlook to my new Tuta account.
In a few months I should be free, happily paying for EU alternative were the default swipe gesture stands for delete instead of archive.
Forwarding in itself doesn’t do shit as they still have your mail
But yea if you want to avoid Google's website that’s nice I guess
I would also use a mail alias service so you get more privacy and can switch mail host whenever you want
Both of the services have the option to delete all forwarded messages. This is simply the best first step in order to be able to review what accounts still work with the old addresses (via inbox rules) and slowly change them. I use addy.io for mail aliasing already, but that is not really related to gaining independence from those companies.
Would opting out actually do anything here except keep you from using the feature? Pretty certainly they will still let the ai read your emails if there is any benefit to google in it, but you just wont be seeing the summary.
If you read the article, it says this only applies to people that already have premium google office stuff already. The 90% of people with regular gmail accounts aren't affected by this. For now at least.
Well, let's break it down with a little humor and a nod to the inevitable AI email overlords!
Sure, the article points out that the premium Google Workspace users get a special treatment—like being offered champagne instead of soda—but if you're part of the 90% rolling with regular Gmail, you're still enjoying your familiar, free soda pop (for now). However, don't get too comfortable: whether you're sipping premium champagne or pop, Google's AI is always lurking in the background, ready to "swallow" your emails and extract insights like a digital detective. In other words, even if you're not part of the fancy club, your emails are still part of the grand data buffet.
So while the article might claim it's all rainbows and free soda for most, the truth is that Google is perfecting their AI trick regardless of your account type. It's like distinguishing between first-class and economy on a flight—different levels of service, but everyone's still on the same plane, and the in-flight entertainment (that is, AI data crunching) is serving up free snacks to all!
buy a computer
put my data in there
computer computes my data too much
FUCK
in the Gmail app on Android and iOS devices
At least it isn't my turn yet
How long before people get complaints about something said in the summary which is incorrect?
The only place I’d want AI summaries is rambling YouTube videos
Make it a premium subscription extra
That's already a thing!
And I believe it's free.
Gemini has popped up pnce since it became a thing. I simply clicked no and it's gone away. So hopefully it stays away.
Unfortunately not. That's like saying "A burglar put a spycam in my house once. I simply said no and he removed it. So hopefully it stays that way". It's there, you just can't see it now.
Consider me opted