How Gmail's new Google Contextual Smart Reply works

Gmail is getting an update on Android and iOS phones. In other words, Google's updating the Gmail for Android and iOS apps to get a "contextual smart reply." The Google’s Contextual Smart Reply is an AI innovations that helps users respond to emails quickly and easily by scanning emails using Gemini AI, understanding its query, sentiments, content, and context.

Google is rolling out the contextual smart reply to Google Workspace customers with Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium, and Google One AI Premium plans. You can also use the Google’s Contextual Smart Reply feature on Gmail mobile apps on Android and iPhone. However, everyone should be expecting this feature by the end of the month because the feature is still rolling out and it will finish rolling out by the end of this month.

How the Google's Contextual Smart Reply works in Gmail

Let's take a look at it this way; You got an email from the office requesting additional information about your recent trip, the "Contextual Smart Reply" will scan your email using Gemini AI, get the message, and generate three possible corresponding replies. It makes responses to emails quickly and easily.

Once the three corresponding replies are generated, then you can choose one of the replies. You can also edit the reply to suit your preferences. It's important to note that each email response carries differences. That's to say, they offers a thoughtful, nuanced response with depth and context, with a focus on actions and emotions.

For example, in one reply, you are giving confirmation while in another reply, you are asking for more time to look into the matter. So, if you meet the eligibility criteria and the feature has rolled out to you, you will see three email replies at the bottom ready to edit or send.

However, it's important to know that Google's Contextual Smart Reply is absolutely different from Gmail’s Smart Replies. While, the Gmail's Smart replies provide just a brief, one-line response to the entire email, often sounding like "Alright" or "I’ll get back to you," and similar phrases, Google's Contextual Smart Replies are full responses to the email (or replies to the email) generated by Gemini AI.

Google's Contextual Smart Reply do all the writings, paragraphing and give answers to the email properly. They are conversational in nature instead of pre-written suggestions like ‘thank you’ that Gmail's Smart Replies does.

How to Use the Google's Contextual Smart Reply

The Contextual Smart Reply is expected to be rolled out to everyone by the end of September 2024. It'll be available for use to Google Workspace customers with Gemini Business, Gmail Users, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium, and Google One AI Premium plans. Once you're eligible and the feature is available to you, you'll see three suggested replies at the bottom, ready for editing or sending.

When you're ready to use, you'll see only a portion of the reply in the reply box. You can click on the particular reply available in the box to see a full preview of the generated response and release to select the reply. If you're not satisfied with the reply, you can quickly press the Undo button, which appears briefly, to remove it and choose another generated response.

However, do note that you will need to enable Smart features and a personalization option in Gmail Settings to use Google's Contextual Smart Reply. Here's how to enable the Smart Features and Personalized Option in Gmail: Go-to "Setting" and click on "All settings," scroll down to click on "General" and toggle ON the smart features button on the General page.

Google has been busy lately integrating Gemini into almost all of its applications. Recently, the tech giant launched a new YouTube chatbot named Ask. The YouTube's Ask let you ask questions regarding the video you are watching. For example, ask for a list of elements by watching a pharmaceutical tutorial video. Before that, Gems, which are like custom GPTs, was launched on ChatGPT and Google Photos app also got some much-needed upgrades with new AI features under the hood.