You can now talk to your Gmail inbox, as seen at Google IO 2026

16 hours ago

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Google isn’t done bringing AI into your inbox yet. On Tuesday, at their IO 2026 developer conference, the tech giant announced an expansion of its “AI Inbox” functionality for Gmail, adding conversational AI features. That means you can ask Gmail about things in your inbox instead of typing in search terms.

The company says the Gemini AI-powered feature, called Gmail Live, will help you quickly find information hidden in your inbox.

For example, maybe you need information about your upcoming flight, the time of your dentist appointment, the door code for your Airbnb rental, or details about an event at your child’s school.

Previously, you had to type keywords into the search box (or perhaps type someone’s email address or domain) to narrow your search. However, that doesn’t always make emails easy to find, especially if the search term appears in multiple messages.

“Gmail Live can answer naturally worded questions, respond to follow-up questions, and throw in a spin when you want to pause,” Devanshi Bhandari, product lead for Gmail, explained in a briefing ahead of Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, where the feature was first introduced to the public.

It’s another way Google is trying to show how its AI technology can bring real improvements to products used by millions of consumers, at a time when many outside the tech industry are questioning the value of AI as new data centers are built in their backyards, driving up their energy bills.

Being able to point to something as simple as making it easier to find something lost in your email inbox – an experience almost everyone has experienced – could be a practical and positive use case for AI… or at least, Google hopes.

Bhandari demonstrated Gmail Live to reporters and asked the tool a series of questions about things in the inbox, such as a child’s show-and-tell project and their field trip, plus hotel and flight information for a trip to Detroit. Similar to using a standalone AI chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT, Gmail users can ask these questions out loud in natural language, and the chatbot responds.

In the demo, Gmail Live also understood the nuances between things like “excursion” and “trip” and could jump from one topic to another, Bhandari noted. Additionally, the AI can extract granular details from emails, such as a hotel room number, or infer which people you’re asking about, even if they’re not explicitly named.

Similar voice technology will also be on its to-do list, Google Keep, the company noted.

It is notable that Gmail Live does not replace the traditional search function in Gmail; it’s just another option.

Google may have learned that not everyone is ready for an AI-only experience after it “upgraded” Google Photos with AI-powered search to much backlash. Google Photos later rolled back the feature, making the use of AI optional after numerous complaints.

Gmail is also getting other new capabilities, including ready-to-use drafts, direct file access, and the ability to manage tasks by marking individual tasks as completed.

Additionally, the AI Inbox experience, which launched earlier this year, will expand beyond Google AI Ultra subscribers and also reach Google AI Pro and Plus subscribers. This allows you to see on one page an overview of the tasks and items you need to catch up on that are hidden in your inbox.

However, the voice-activated Gmail Live feature will roll out later this summer and will initially be limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers.