Gmail: Google is reportedly adding an AI voice feature

Voice-activated prompts might be coming to Gmail.
By Cecily Mauran  on 
help me write feature in a Gmail email draft
Soon, you might be able to use your voice for AI-generated email drafts. Credit: Google

Google's AI-assisted email drafting feature might soon come with voice support.

"Help Me Write" is a new Gmail feature that uses generative AI to help users draft emails. (Note: it's still only available through access to Labs, Google's testing ground for new AI features.)

Currently, users enter a written prompt like "Help me write an introduction to someone I met at a conference." But as TheSpAndroid spotted, soon you might be able to use Help Me Write with your voice.

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On the Gmail mobile app, the blogger was able to activate the beta feature by tapping "Draft email with voice" above the keyboard. This opened up a microphone button for recording a prompt. After the prompt is recorded, users can hit create which generates an email draft that can be edited.

Google has steadily announcing AI-related features for its tools and services. There's Duet AI, an AI assistant for writing in Google Docs and Sheets, and its AI-powered search experiment, SGE, continues to build momentum (albeit still in Labs).

Just last week, Google announced Circle to Search on new Samsung devices, which lets you search for things by circling an image.

Although Google launched Help Me Write for Gmail last June, there hasn't been any official mention from the company about voice prompts. But this is likely a sign of an upcoming announcement.

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Cecily Mauran

Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on Twitter at @cecily_mauran.


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