Google Rolls Out Contextual Smart Replies for Gmail on Android and iOS

Highlights

• Google introduces Contextual Smart Replies for Gmail on Android and iOS.
• It will provide tailored responses using Gemini AI.
• Currently available in English for premium tier users only.
• To be available for all Gmail users soon.

Google is now rolling out Contextual Smart Replies for Gmail on Android and iOS devices. This comes after the announcement at I/O 2024. At the annual event, it was announced that Google is building on the Smart Reply and Smart Compose features with Contextual Smart Replies.

Contextual Smart Replies mean Google looks at the context of an email to provide much more customized, detailed, and nuanced suggestions. The current Smart Replies feature is more of a one-line reply option.

As mentioned, this new feature will be an upgrade from the original Smart Reply launched in 2017.

Google will be utilising its Gemini AI capability and provide more detailed, tailored responses based on the context of an email.

Once the rollout is complete, Gmail users will have to enable “Smart features and personalisation” in Gmail to be able to access this feature.

Once enabled, you will see three reply suggestions in a carousel when drafting a reply to an email. Each suggestion will summarise the tone and direction of the response.

Users would be able to long-press to get a preview. Whereas, tapping will insert the full reply into the email. The entire response will be completed with greetings and closings for further editing.

In a post on its official blog, Google explained the new feature in detail – “After initiating an email reply, users will see a few response options at the bottom of their screen that take the full content of the email thread into consideration. Hover over each response to get a quick preview of the text, select the one that feels right for the situation, and edit it as you see fit or send the response immediately.”

As of now, the Contextual Smart Reply feature is only supported in English. The availability of the feature is also limited to users on premium tiers such as Google One AI Premium, Gemini Business, and other enterprise or education plans.

According to Google, the feature is rolling out now and will be available to all Gmail users in the coming weeks.

Apart from this, Google has also introduced other recent features such as Summarize for individual emails and Gmail Q&A for Desktop.

FAQs

What is the new Contextual Smart Replies feature in Gmail?

The Contextual Smart Replies feature in Gmail offers detailed, tailored responses based on the context of an email, thanks to Google’s Gemini AI.

How will Contextual Smart Replies on Gmail work?

Gmail users will get three reply suggestions in a carousel, which can be previewed or inserted into the email for further editing.

Who can access the new Contextual Smart Replies in Gmail?

Currently, the feature is available only in English and is accessible to users on premium tiers such as Google One AI Premium, Gemini Business, and other enterprise and education plans. The feature is rolling out now and will be fully available in the coming weeks.

What is the difference between Contextual Smart Replies & Smart Replies ?

Contextual Smart Replies and the original Smart Replies both aim to streamline email responses, but they differ in terms of complexity and functionality.

Smart Replies offers short, pre-written, one-line suggestions like “Thanks!” or “I’ll check and get back to you,” based on the content of the email.

The feature doesn’t analyse the entire conversation deeply but provides general, quick responses to speed up communication. The feature is ideal for short or straightforward email interactions where only a brief acknowledgement or simple answer is needed.

And the new Contextual Smart Replies is designed as an advanced version of basic Smart Replies.

Powered by Google’s Gemini AI, this new feature analyses the entire conversation in-depth and offers more nuanced and context-aware responses. It generates three fully crafted email responses, each with a distinct tone or action (e.g., asking for more information, confirming details, or declining).

These suggestions include greetings, body content, and sign-offs, and users can preview and edit them before sending. Tailored to more involved conversations, the feature helps users save time with more comprehensive replies.

Contextual Smart Replies is a more advanced version, providing deeper context and longer responses, whereas Smart Replies focuses on brevity and speed.

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