Google to introduce new settings for smart features, personalization in Gmail

Google said Monday it will introduce new ways to give Gmail users more control over their data and the overall Google experience. In the coming weeks, the tech giant will launch a new setting for smart features and personalization in Gmail.

The new setting will give users the ability to choose whether their data in Gmail, Meet and Chat can be used to offer smart features in these or to simply disable the smart features.

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"The ability to turn on (or not) some of these individual smart features is not new. What's new is a clearer choice over the data processing that makes them possible. This new setting is designed to reduce the work of understanding and managing that process, in view of what we've learned from user experience research and regulators' emphasis on comprehensible, actionable user choices over data," Google wrote in a blog post.

In addition, the new settings will allow users to personalize other google products based on their Gmail, Meet and Chat data. Enabling the personalization options will offer smart features like reminders when users' bills are due in the Google Assistant, restaurant reservations in Google Maps, smart compose in email, among others. 

Image Credit: Google

Notably, users choosing not to use smart features and personalization will still be able to use Gmail and our other products. And if they decide to turn on these features later, they can do so in the Gmail settings.

Google says these smart features, as before, are provided by using automated algorithms, not manually review and users remain in control of their data, whether they are individual Gmail users or Google Workspace administrators.

"We'll continue evolving controls in our products to align with these trends. Because smart features rely on your data to save you time and provide a more helpful experience, we want you to use them because you find value in using them, not because they're simply there," the company said.