How to Use Gemini in Gmail: Summaries, Help Me Write and Replies

The short version

Gemini in Gmail saves the most time on the two jobs everyone dreads: catching up on long threads and starting a reply. Summaries take one click. Drafts take one sentence. Your job is to read the summary critically and make the draft sound like you.

Step by step

Summarize a long thread

1. Open the email thread in Gmail on your computer.
2. At the top of the thread, click Summarize this email. An AI Overview appears with the key points and replies.
3. If the thread mentions a task with a deadline, click Remind me next to it. Google adds the reminder to Google Tasks and Calendar.

If you don’t see the option, check that smart features are on in Gmail’s settings. Google lists them as a requirement.

Draft a new email

1. Click Compose, or reply to an email.
2. In the prompt bar at the bottom of the compose window, type what you want. If you don’t see the bar, click Help me write.
3. Click Create.
4. Polish it with a new instruction (“Mention the Friday deadline”) or the buttons Formalize, Friendly and Shorten. Undo and Redo switch between versions.

Google says Help me write can pull details like flight times or booking codes from your other emails and Drive files. Click Sources to see which ones it used.

Pick a suggested reply

Open an email and look at the bottom. If Gmail offers a suggested reply, click it, edit it, then click Send. Google says replies on paid plans are personalized to match your past emails.

Prompts to copy

A reply that moves things forward:

Reply to Dana: accept the Thursday call but ask to move it to 3 p.m.
Mention I'll send the revised quote by Wednesday. Friendly, under 80 words.

Turn notes into an email:

Turn these notes into a short email to my team about the new holiday schedule:
closed Dec 24-26, half day Dec 31, on-call rota in the shared sheet. Plain and clear.

A polite no:

Decline this invitation to speak at the conference. Thank them, say my schedule is full
this quarter, and offer to suggest a colleague.

Example

You have: a 23-message thread about a delayed delivery.

You do: click Summarize this email. The overview says the supplier promised a new date, finance asked for a credit note, and you still owe a reply. Then click Reply, type “Confirm the new date and ask when the credit note will arrive” in the Help me write bar, shorten it, and check the date against the thread before sending.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating the summary as the thread. Summaries can miss a late change of plan. Skim the last few messages yourself.
• Sending the draft unread. Gemini may pull a detail from the wrong email. Check names, dates and amounts.
• Vague prompts. Google’s own advice: say who you’re writing to, what they should do, and the tone.
• Assuming every feature is there. The Ask Gemini side panel, Proofread and AI Inbox depend on your plan, and Google lists some as US or English only.

Good to know

Google’s plans page lists Gemini in Gmail from the Google AI Plus plan up. Work accounts get features through an eligible Google Workspace plan. Menus change; if a button has moved, search Gmail Help for “Gemini features in Gmail”. To work with Gmail from the main Gemini app instead, see connect Gemini to Gmail and Drive.

Related: use Gemini in Google Docs and schedule actions in Gemini.