While Google started a bit slow on the AI front compared to rivals like OpenAI and Microsoft, the company has slowly integrated Gemini into all of its apps and services.
Be it Google Docs, Gmail, Drive, or even Android’s Google Assistant, Gemini has made its way into almost every Google service we use daily.
While Gemini is great at many tasks, sometimes even replacing apps on our phones, it’s still an AI, and not everyone is comfortable using it.
Not everyone wants Gemini in Google Workspace apps, and some people aren’t comfortable sharing their data with Google in apps like Google Photos or Gmail.
If you’re in the same boat and find Gemini as annoying as I do, there’s a way to remove Gemini from most Google apps and services you rely on.
It’s not as simple as it sounds, but you can manually, and one by one, disable Gemini across several Google apps. Here’s how.
Stop sharing your image data with AI
Google recently rolled out the Ask Photos feature in Google Photos.
The feature seems useful, letting you recall info from your photos, such as a sunset from your vacation or even your car’s license plate number.
Not only that, but Ask Photos has even expanded to image editing by letting you Ask Photos what edit you want.
However, you might not want to share your images or related data with Google.
Thankfully, you can easily disable Ask Photos and Gemini features in Google Photos right from the app on your Android phone.
Here’s how:
- Open the Google Photos app on your phone.
- Tap your profile icon in the upper-right corner and select Google Photos settings.
- Tap Preferences.
- Tap Gemini features and disable the Use Gemini in photos toggle.
How to get rid of AI Overviews in Google Search
Switch back to classic results for faster and clearer answers
Over the past few months, AI Overviews have taken over Google Search.
While the company is working to improve them by adding more sources and more inline links to sites you trust, Google Search has completely changed in a short span of time.
If you want cleaner and more organic results on Google Search without any AI features or AI Overviews blocking what you are actually trying to look up, there is a simple and clever way to get that classic Search experience back.
Next time you search on Google without all the AI clutter, just add “-ai” to the end of your query. This returns much cleaner and more traditional Google Search results without AI Overviews taking over your screen.
The best part is that this trick works across all devices, including desktops and smartphones.
How to disable Gemini features inside Google Chrome
Here’s how you can stop AI from appearing in the browser
Among Google’s apps and services, Chrome has been one of the slowest to get Gemini integration.
That is likely because of its massive user base and the need for Google to perfect its AI features before rolling them out in the browser.
Nonetheless, Gemini in Google Chrome has started to roll out. The feature is available for users above 18 years old in the US who use Chrome in English.
With Gemini in Chrome, you can ask questions to the chatbot from anywhere in the browser, search your browsing history in natural language, and use gen AI writing tools.
If, however, you don’t want Gemini peeking into your browsing history or Chrome data, here’s how to disable it on your computer:
- Open Google Chrome on your Mac or Windows device.
- Click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner and select Settings.
- On the left sidebar, select AI innovations.
- Select History search, powered by AI and Help me write and toggle them off.
How to turn off Gemini in Drive, Docs, and other Workspace apps
Limit AI tools across your Google account for a simpler experience
One of Google’s big pushes for Gemini has been integrating the service into its Workspace apps.
Services like Gmail, Drive, Docs, and more offer Gemini integration, with each app providing its own set of features.
For example, in Gmail, you can ask Gemini to skim through your emails and pull relevant info. In Drive, it can help you understand what a folder contains. In Docs, it can help you format and write content.
However, if you don’t want Gemini interfering with your Workspace flow, you can easily disable all smart Gemini features in all Workspace apps at once.
- Open the Google Drive desktop website (drive.google.com) and click the gear icon (Settings) in the upper-right corner.
- Select Privacy and then tap Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
- Toggle Smart features in Google Workspace to off.
It’s worth noting that there’s also an option to disable Smart features in other Google products, but turning this off will also disable Gemini in apps like Maps and Calendar.
Google will even stop offering basic AI-powered features like suggested tickets and loyalty passes in the Wallet app, as well as suggestions and answers in the Gemini app.
If you want to disable Gemini completely across all Google apps, you can switch off this option. Otherwise, you’re good to go by disabling only the first option.
Get the old Google experience back
All things considered, while Google has made it easier to do a lot of stuff using Gemini in almost all its apps and services, there are times when you simply don’t want to use these AI features.
And if you’d rather limit AI on your Google Pixel, there are ways to make that happen as well.
