Google is rolling out new Gemini capabilities in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive

Google Announce on Tuesday that it will bring a slew of new AI capabilities powered by Gemini to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. New features let users do things like quickly create first drafts, slides, and fully formatted sheets based on information from Gmail, Chat, and Drive.

Widgets are designed to make apps more personal and able to help users get things done faster, directly within the platforms themselves, rather than having to switch to a separate tool or chatbot.

The new Help Me Create tool in Docs lets users describe what they want to create, and Gemini will follow their instructions and combine information from Drive, Gmail, and Chat to create a first draft. For example, you can ask Gemini to “draft a newsletter for our neighborhood association using meeting minutes from the January HOA meeting and a list of upcoming events.”

Once you have a first draft, Gemini can help refine certain sections without recreating the entire document. You can also use the Help Me Write tool to do things like improve clarity or add detail when needed.

Additionally, if you have multiple people working on a draft with different voices and tones, you can now use the new Writing Style Match feature to help unify documents. Gemini will suggest adjustments to make the tone and voice consistent throughout the draft.

Docs is also getting a new “Match Formatting” tool that lets you mirror the structure and style of another document. For example, if you find an itinerary template you like, Gemini can fill it with your own trip details by pulling information from your emails, such as flight confirmations, hotel reservations, and car rental reservations.

As for spreadsheets, Gemini is evolving from a tool you work with to a collaborative partner, Google says. With a single prompt, relevant data will be pulled from Gmail, Chat, and Drive to quickly create a fully formatted spreadsheet.

For example, you can ask for it “Organizing my next move to Chicago. Create a packing by room checklist, a contact list for facilities, and a spreadsheet to track moving company quotes from my inbox.

For more complex tasks, you can now use the Fill with Gemini tool to fill tables faster. This feature can instantly generate custom text, categorize and summarize data, or pull real-time information from a Google search.

For example, if you manage college applications, you might have a tool that tracks all the details of your application. Instead of manually searching for each school’s deadlines, tuition, and other information, you can set up column headers to get the details you need, then let Gemini automatically populate the table by pulling relevant information from the web.

In Sheets, you can now have Gemini create a fully editable slide in your deck that matches your overall theme, drawing on context from your files, emails, and the web. If you don’t like a slide, you can ask Gemini to edit it by asking him to do things like “Match colors with the rest of my collection” or “Reduce this to a minimum.”

In the future, Google says Slides will let you create an entire presentation with a single prompt, using relevant context when needed. For example, you’ll be able to ask Gemini to “Create a deck of 5 slides for my upcoming trip to Tokyo.”

Google also announced that it’s making Drive no longer just a place to store your files, but more of an active collaborator. Now, when you search Drive using natural language, Gemini will display “AI Overview” at the top of your results, like the ones you see on a Google search. The overview summarizes the most relevant information from your files, noting their sources, so you don’t need to open a document to find what you’re looking for.

The new Ask Gemini in Drive feature lets you ask complex questions across documents, emails, calendar, and the web. For example, you can select all of your tax-related filings and ask, “What should I ask my tax advisor before filing this year’s taxes?” And get detailed answer based on your actual data.

All the new features are rolling out today in beta and will be available first to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers. It’s available in English worldwide for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and in the US for Drive.