Gmail Smart Compose- 

What You Need To Know 

*Image created by NanoBanana Pro

@LisaBerghoff

The automations that exist in our everyday technology keep getting more and more "helpful". One issue that I run into is that what is meant to be helpful may actually go against what it is that I am trying to do. There are assumptions made when smart technologies are created and fortunately for us, they are often correct. However, it is always helpful to be aware of these automations just in case the technology is designed to do something that you really don't want. This is also a good reminder to slow down, pay attention to what you are doing and look over your messages before you press send. So you can learn from my mistakes, here is some helpful information about Gmail Smart Compose.

What Is Gmail Smart Compose?

Gmail Smart Compose is an AI powered feature that provides writing suggestions as you type to help you compose emails faster. It uses machine learning to predict and suggest phrases or sentences based on what you have already written. The goal is to save time and reduce repetitive typing. There is a personalization setting that allows the feature to learn your unique writing style and suggest phrases you use frequently. The default has this setting turned on. See below for how to turn it on and off. 

How Do I Use Gmail Smart Compose?

This is a feature that you can turn on and off in your Gmail settings. 

1. Click the gear -> See all settings

2. Under "general", scroll down to "smart compose" and "smart compose personalization" 

3. Select writing suggestions on or off, personalization on or off. If personalization is turned off but writing suggestions is turned on, then you will see generic suggestions as you type. 

When you are typing, you will see words appear in gray. You can accept these suggestions by pressing the tab key on your keyboard. They will be ignored if you just keep typing. Smart Compose works in many languages. 

 What Else Do I Need To Know?

Google gets a LOT of use out of the @ symbol and there are new features being updated constantly. If you use the @symbol in the body of your email, and you choose an email address, it will auto-populate into the TO section of your email, sending the email to that address upon pressing send. 

Watch below and see what happens:

BONUS! Hidden feature in Gmail:

I recently learned about the Gmail "plus" trick, also called email subaddressing. This lets you create unlimited versions of your email address by adding a + sign and any text before the @. The messages will still get sent to your base gmail address. This also makes it easy to filter. For example, I could ask for Charity Drive questions to be sent to lberghoff+charitydrive@dist113.org. Those messages will appear in my school gmail inbox, but Gmail will treat them as separate gmail addresses. Think about the categories of emails that you get. Using these subaddresses can help you organize and also make sure nothing gets lost.

You're welcome!

If you want some help with Gmail, or any other edtech tool we use, please contact me.