How to Use Google's New Gemini AI Features in Your Daily Apps

Imagine opening your laptop in the morning to a mountain of unread emails, or trying to plan a weekend family getaway with twenty open browser tabs. Google has recently rolled out updates to its built-in AI assistant, Gemini, making it much easier to handle these daily tasks directly inside the tools you already use.

Rather than visiting a separate website to use AI, you can now find these helpful features waiting for you in your inbox, your documents, and your search bar. Here is how to make the most of these new updates in your day-to-day life.

Smart Summaries in Gmail and Docs

If you find yourself drowning in long email chains, you can now let the AI do the heavy reading. Google has integrated Gemini directly into Google Workspace (the collection of online office apps like Google Docs, Sheets, and Gmail).

Because of an increased context window (how much text the AI can "remember" and look at in one go), the assistant can now read, analyse, and summarise thousands of words of email threads or long reports in seconds.

To use this feature:

1. Open a long email thread or a document on your computer.
2. Click the Gemini icon (it looks like a small, colourful sparkle) in the top-right corner of your screen.
3. Select "Summarise this email" or type a prompt (the simple instruction you give to an AI) such as, "What are the main action items from this discussion?"

Smarter Planning in Google Search

Planning a trip or researching a big purchase usually involves clicking through dozens of different websites to compare options. Google Search now uses AI to do that legwork for you, turning search results into organised, ready-to-use plans.

For example, if you want to plan a weekend trip to Melbourne, you can type a highly specific question into the search bar. Try asking: "Create a two-day itinerary for a family in Melbourne, focusing on free outdoor activities, and group the suggestions by suburb."

The search engine will gather information from across the web, organise it into a clean table, and give you direct links to the sources if you want to read further.

Wrap-up

These new updates mean you do not need to be a technology expert to benefit from AI. By building these capabilities straight into the apps we already use, Google has made it easier than ever to save time on mundane tasks. Try clicking the sparkle icon in your Gmail inbox today to see how much time you can save on your very next email.