Have you noticed how desperate tech companies are to get you to use their artificial intelligence features, even if you don’t want to use them? They’re adding buttons to user interfaces and using pop-up tool tips to implore you to click them and become a dedicated user of their AI creations.
Google Docs, for example, is rolling out a giant Gemini bar at the bottom of the screen for some users. I first noticed this feature back in April, when it showed up in the Google Docs account I use to collaborate with editors. Apparently I was part of the pool of users chosen to test the feature. I know people who have never seen this box, and I’ve seen reports of it showing up for people in the last few weeks. So it varies.
If you’re one of the users who sees this feature and you don’t want it on your screen, good news: The giant bar is easy enough to hide.
Click Gemini in the menu bar, then hover over Bottom bar preferences and select Turn off.
Do that and the bar is gone. It can’t hurt you anymore.
But if you’d like to banish AI features from Google Docs entirely, you can keep going. There are a couple ways to stop things like the Gemini menu from showing up in Google Docs. The first, which is working for some people but not others, is to change a setting in Gmail. The second, which seems to be working for everyone, is to install a Chrome extension.
First, a caveat: The process is a little different for personal Google accounts (basically, any account with an @gmail.com email address) and company accounts that use Google Workspace (basically, any account managed by your employer with an email address of your company’s domain). For company-issued Workspace accounts, it’s up to the administrator to decide which AI features you do and don’t see.
So if you use Google Workspace at your job, only the IT team can turn off the AI features. There’s not much you can do on your own, but you could try giving your IT worker a plate of cookies as encouragement.
Personal users have a bit more control, but the path forward is obscure: The option you need to toggle is in Gmail. Yep.
Open your Gmail account, then click the gear in the top right corner. Next, click See all settings. Then, in the General tab, scroll down until you see the Smart features option.
Uncheck this and Google will ask you to pretty please not disable the feature. Then, once the setting has applied, head back to your Google Docs window and refresh it.
It’s worth noting that this box in Gmail’s settings doesn’t even mention Google Docs. It’s also worth noting that turning this off disables a number of other AI-powered features in Gmail, including grammar suggestions, autocorrect, smart compose, smart reply, and nudges. This also disables Gmail’s spellcheck, though the spellcheck offered by your browser will continue to work. If you depend on these features in Gmail, you might be stuck with AI in Google Docs.
If disabling those things doesn’t present an issue for you, head back to Google Docs. The Gemini menu, the audio button, and (most importantly) the AI toolbar at the bottom of the screen are now all completely gone. There’s still a Gemini button in the top-right corner, granted, but that’s a lot easier to ignore than those other intrusions if you don’t want Gemini in Docs. Enjoy not being distracted while working on documents—for now, at least. Google has a history of undoing changes like this.
Speaking of, if changing this setting didn’t work for you, or if you’d rather not turn off all of the Gemini-powered smart features, there’s another option: the Bye Bye Gemini extension for Google Chrome. Install this and every aspect of Google’s AI in its productivity products—from Gmail to Docs to Drive—will disappear. The extension uses CSS to render all of those things invisible in the browser. It also has the benefit of removing AI Overviews from Google search results!
I’m not necessarily opposed to AI, I just don’t think it should be crammed into every user interface as a default. Plenty of Google Docs users may prefer Claude, ChatGPT, or a locally hosted Ollama setup to Google’s Gemini. And some, of course, would rather avoid using AI altogether. So I’m glad it’s possible—if a little tricky—to completely disable the feature.
Now if only Google would make it a bit easier to hide AI overviews from your search results. The only method I’ve found that works is to install an extension in Chrome or Safari that forces the search engine to use the “Web” section for every search. A toggle for that—even one buried in Gmail—would be nice.
The post How to Disable Gemini in Gmail and Google Docs appeared first on Wired.
