Google Gemini Can Now Access Data From Your Chats, E-Mail, Drive Using Deep Research

Google Gemini can now access a user's Chat, Gmail and Google Drive via the 'Deep Research' feature, according to a blog post from the company on Wednesday.

The agentic feature is intended to help users create research reports, a shift away from the generic prompt-based question and answer routine that it usually engages in.

This ability to extract and use data from the user's personal Google archives can be activated when the user deliberately selects which sources Deep Research can access from a drop-down menu.

To use the feature, users need to select 'Deep Research' from the 'Tools' menu and then select whether it can access Gmail, Drive, Google Chat or all or none of them.

It is intended to help create a more "comprehensive" research report.

"This means you can create even more comprehensive reports by pulling in information directly from your Gmail, Drive (including Docs, Slides, Sheets and PDFs) and Google Chat, alongside a variety of sources from the web," the company said.

Google called the feature one of its "most requested" and said that Deep Research can have applications in market and product analysis.

"Now you can start a market analysis for a new product by having Deep Research analyze your team's initial brainstorming docs, related email threads and project plans," the blog post said.

"Or you can build a competitor report about a rival product that cross-references public web data with your strategies, comparison spreadsheets and team chats," it added.

The feature is only currently available for desktop users but will be rolled out for mobile users in the coming days.