Why turn off Gmail's AI features?
Google has added artificial intelligence features to Gmail, called "Smart Features", that automatically analyze the content of your emails to offer suggestions, quick replies and reminders. They may seem handy, but they mean an AI system reads and analyzes all your emails, including personal and sensitive messages.
Many users do not know these features are on by default, and even fewer know they can turn them off. If you value your privacy and prefer that algorithms do not analyze your communications, it is worth knowing how to switch these options off.
What are Gmail's Smart Features?
Gmail's Smart Features include several AI-powered functions:
Smart Compose: automatic phrase suggestions as you write an email.
Smart Reply: quick reply suggestions based on the content of the email you received.
Nudges: automatic reminders to reply to emails or follow up on unanswered messages.
Automatic categorization: emails sorted into categories (Promotions, Social and so on).
Information extraction: automatic detection of events, bookings, packages to track and more.
All of these features require Google to analyze the content of your emails with artificial intelligence algorithms.
Step-by-step guide to turning off Smart Features
Follow these simple steps to turn off Gmail's AI features:
Step 1: Sign in to your Gmail account, click the gear icon (⚙️) at the top right, then select "See all settings".
Step 2: On the "General" tab, scroll down to the "Smart Features and Personalization" section.
Step 3: Uncheck the following boxes:
• "Smart Compose": turns off writing suggestions
• "Smart Compose personalization": turns off personalization of suggestions
• "Smart Reply": turns off quick reply suggestions
• "Nudges": turns off automatic reminders
Step 4: Most important of all, uncheck "Smart features and personalization in other Google products". This option controls whether your Gmail data can be used by other Google services such as Chat, Meet and Google Drive.
Step 5: Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Save changes".
Don't forget to save your changes! Without that, the settings will not be applied.
Turning them off on mobile (iOS and Android)
In the Gmail mobile app, the process is similar:
1. Open the Gmail app
2. Tap the menu (☰) at the top left
3. Scroll down and tap "Settings"
4. Select your account
5. Tap "Smart Compose" and turn it off
6. Go back, tap "Smart Reply" and turn that off too
Note: some of the more advanced settings are only available in the web version of Gmail.
Effect on your Gmail experience
After you turn these features off, here is what changes:
What goes away: no more automatic suggestions while you write, no quick reply buttons, no automatic reminders, and less automatic categorization.
What stays: all the essential Gmail features keep working normally: sending and receiving email, search, filters, labels and so on.
Privacy gain: your emails are no longer analyzed by Google's AI systems for these specific features (although Google still scans emails to detect spam and security threats).
More private alternatives to Gmail
If you want to go further in protecting your privacy, consider these alternatives to Gmail:
ProtonMail: an end-to-end encrypted email service based in Switzerland, with strong privacy protection. A free version is available.
Tutanota: open-source encrypted email with servers in Germany. Very affordable and privacy-friendly.
Mailfence: a Belgian service offering secure email with PGP encryption. A good option for European users.
Fastmail: an Australian paid service known for respecting privacy and for its professional features.
These alternatives do not sell your data to advertisers and offer a much higher level of privacy than Gmail.
Other Gmail privacy settings to check
While you are in Gmail's settings, take the chance to check these other privacy options:
External images: turn off automatic image display to avoid invisible trackers in emails.
Two-factor authentication: turn on 2FA to protect your account from unauthorized access.
Account activity: check your Gmail account's recent activity regularly to spot any suspicious sign-in.
Third-party app permissions: review and revoke access for apps that no longer need to reach your Gmail.
Sources and additional resources
For more on turning off Gmail's AI features, see this detailed video guide: How to Disable Gmail Smart Features (YouTube)
Google updates its privacy settings regularly. Check the official Google Support page for the latest information.