How Gemini can help you find buried Google Drive files with ease

Love it or hate it, you cannot ignore Gemini. Google has integrated Gemini into almost all its products and services. Google Drive is no exception, where you can use Gemini to summarize large PDFs, quickly write a letter based on your input, retrieve facts or information, and more. If you rely on Google Drive for file and document management, Gemini can boost your workflow, even when you’re working mobile from your Android tablet.

If that’s not enough, you can use Google’s AI-powered chatbot to find files within a particular folder or summarize its content. This can be handy if you use Google Drive to manage many files. Here’s how to use Gemini in Google Drive to quickly sift through your folders.

Where to find Gemini in Google Drive

Many of the Gemini features in Google Drive are available as part of the Google Workspace Labs. If you have not joined the program, make sure to do so. It is also available for Google Workspace users on the Business, Enterprise, Education, and Education Premium.

Individual users can access Gemini in Google Drive by subscribing to the Google One AI Premium plan. However, only the primary account holder is entitled to the AI perks. Additionally, you must activate the Google Workspace Gemini extension.

Using Gemini to sift through a Google Drive folder

Do you have a folder containing several important and tedious documents that you need to go through manually? Gemini can summarize the folder’s contents, detailing what the documents inside are all about.

Source: Google

1. Navigate to Google Drive on the web.
2. Bring up the Gemini sidebar in Google Drive and ask it to summarize or “detail the contents inside the @<insert folder name>.” If you don’t see the Gemini sidebar, click the Ask Gemini button next to your profile photo in the upper-right corner.
3. Gemini will analyze the folder’s contents and provide you with a summary. You can ask follow-up questions related to the documents.

In my case, I asked Gemini to summarize the Visa folder for an upcoming trip. Then, I asked for more details about my application and whether I was missing important documents.

A quicker way to summarize a folder’s content in Google Drive is to right-click it and select Summarize this folder. Alternatively, if you left-click on a file or folder, a Summarize this file option appears in the toolbar. You can also drag and drop a folder or file into Gemini’s side panel and ask related questions.

Likewise, you can use Gemini to quickly summarize an upcoming meeting’s agenda or schedule from a Drive folder or retrieve your travel details. You can use the same method to summarize long documents or spreadsheets stored in your Google Drive.

With spreadsheets, you can ask Gemini to create charts based on the available data. There are other ways to use Gemini in Google Sheets to speed up your workflow.

Gemini can only scan and summarize documents and PDFs in Google Drive. It is not compatible with media files.

Besides summarizing and asking questions about a folder or file, you can ask Gemini to create new folders and move files into them. For instance, I asked Gemini to create a new “Visa” folder and automatically move all Visa application documents into it, saving me time and effort.

Using Gemini on Android to summarize Google Drive folders

The Google Drive app does not feature Gemini integration. Instead, you must use the Gemini app to find and summarize files stored in your Drive. It is one of the many features of Gemini on Android.

1. Bring up Gemini on your phone by long-pressing the power button or saying, “Hey, Google.”
2. Ask Gemini to “summarize the contents of the <insert Google Drive> folder in Google Drive.”

In my testing, I found Gemini on the web more reliable in summarizing and analyzing content inside a Google Drive folder than on mobile. The feature would likely work more reliably if Google integrated Gemini into the Drive app.

Use Gemini to find folders and files in Google Drive

One of the best parts about Gemini integration in Google Drive is you can do a fuzzy search using the AI chatbot to find the correct file. With so many files on my Drive, I don’t always remember the file names of all documents. In such cases, I bring up Gemini and ask it to locate the file that contains information related to my upcoming holiday itinerary.

Gemini sifts through my entire Drive and surfaces the appropriate files and PDFs containing the relevant information. If several files have similar names, I can use Gemini to summarize each file quickly to find out what their content is about. It is also possible to ask follow-up questions, like when my travel dates are and flight information.

Gemini in Google Drive will speed up your workflow

If you are a heavy Google Drive user, relying on it to back up and manage your files, the Gemini integration can boost your productivity. You can use it to summarize files inside a folder and get more relevant, actionable information. Besides Drive, you can use Gemini in Google Messages to compile and send text messages.