Use Gemini to Summarise Google Drive Docs From within Gmail

The secret sauce of Gemini for everyday users lies in how it bridges the gap between the different Workspace apps.

One of our favourite ways to do this is with the @ function in the Gemini side panel to reference specific files. We find this especially useful when composing emails in Gmail, and we have to summarise the content of a document saved in Google Drive.

You can now open Gemini in Gmail, type @ command followed by the name of a Doc in your Google Drive, and ask it to 'Draft a follow-up email based on the key points in this file'.

Step 1 - Click the Gemini star icon to open the Gemini side panel in Gmail.

Step 2 - Ask Gemini to summarise your file and use the @ symbol, start typing the name of your file and select it from the list.

Step 3 - Gemini will summarise the key points from the file, and you can use this to compose your email, or why not get Gemini to do that for you! Continue to prompt Gemini by asking it something similar to 'draft a follow-up email based on the key points in this file'.

Step 4 - Gemini will generate a draft email directly in the side panel.

You can then click 'Insert' to add it to a new draft email.

Don't forget you can collaborate with Gemini on the email before you insert it; you might prompt Gemini to make it shorter, or change the tone, etc.

To learn more about Gmail & Gemini productivity features, book a live training session with Cloudshed.