Google Drive‘s Gemini-powered sidebar isn’t a new addition, but the enhancements Google just gave the nifty section of the platform definitely are.
For reference, Google Drive, in addition to several other Workspace apps, gained the Gemini sidebar in the summer of last year. Since then, the integration has gained several upgrades, with today’s update being one of them.
Up until now, Google Drive’s Gemini sidebar has been able to summarize files and folders, paired with support for natural conversation with tools like “Learn about a file in Drive” and “Ask about this folder.” The integration recently also gained a novel ‘Catch me up‘ feature that identifies changes in shared documents and briefs you about them. However, support for all the smart features has been limited to text-based analysis.
Google wants to change that, and it is doing so by giving the sidebar the ability to analyze images saved in your Drive.
A powerful tool for professionals
Source: Google
This comes soon after Google gave the sidebar the ability to analyze videos saved in your drive. With the development, users can now ask Gemini to:
- Summarize images
- Extract text from images
- Extract information from receipts, for example, and organize said information in a table
- Generate alt text for images
- Generate stories about images, and more
Google added that the feature, at least during its initial availability, will be limited to images containing English. Additionally, the ability to analyze images works best with scanned documents like contracts, receipts, invoices, and other text-heavy images. Considering that, the new feature will likely be the most useful for professionals that deal with text-heavy images, including the likes of company financial staff, marketing and design teams, and potentially even students.
The feature is rolling out now and is expected to be widely visible by mid-September across Business Standard and Plus, and Enterprise Standard and Plus accounts. Additionally, customers with the Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on or a Google One AI Premium subscription will also gain access to the feature.
