Continue, or "try it now" a popup from Gmail now asks, offering to compose your next message with Gemini.

@briankrebs Does ‘Continue’ do the same thing as ‘Try now’?

@dianea @briankrebs Been thinking the same. It would also be nice to have a proper search again via ripgrep.

@briankrebs nah the tiny "x" is likely the "continue" button aka the "remind me later" button

@briankrebs And here I thought I was already confidently drafting my emails ...

@briankrebs There is a setting to turn off "smart features" which will suppress those Gemini prompts.

@kahomono You still get the nag screens every time they release a new feature and every now and then a nag screen to turn Gemini on. @briankrebs

@briankrebs
Because writing an email is such a hard thing that we have always struggled with...

@multisn8

I did! when seeing this screenshot, my first thought was: huh, I wonder how confidential this really is?? I was confident about my initial read.

Also, does this mean that some (many? most??) emails I receive from gmail accounts will be written by AI? I'm sorry, but I do not spend my time reading AI-generated mail. Boycott in both directions (sending and receiving from gmail).

@briankrebs

@briankrebs @rootwyrm the correct process flow is x -> options -> takeout -> download my data -> options -> account -> delete my account.

Is it just me, or does "draft emails confidently" seem like too awkward a phrase to inspire much confidence?

@briankrebs I just disabled the smart features entirely. No, smart folder organization isn't a thing I want, it is why I disabled it in the first place. I'm sure Google is using my messages to train their models anyway, but I don't want to get bothered by all this fuzz.

@briankrebs

That's weird #AI marketing from #gmail.

As "a random guy on the internet" I have all the confidence I need to type an email...

@briankrebs yep, there is absolutely no way to turn it off now, and no way to keep it from hoovering up your inbox for training. "X" is just "force it on me every time."

Seriously.
People need to get the fuck off Gmail.
It's so damn bad that I am giving serious consideration to starting an email hosting business. And I know better than just about everyone what that involves.

@briankrebs And, while we are here talking about email, a coworker suggested that I use Outlook. Which alternative exists which is not backed by Mozilla and supports Windows and HTML mail? If there isn't one, I guess I will have to use Thunderbird.

@paul @kahomono @briankrebs

yup - I turned all that crap off as soon as I found out I could do so and **then** when I started getting those screen nags I went back and rechecked my settings: all the smart still set to off.

@MsMerope @paul @kahomono just checked and yep that's all turned off in my profile as well.

@dianea @briankrebs

bring back Eudora!!!

@briankrebs You get the same type nag notification, with the elusive and unclear button naming and choices, for other Google products, like Photos and Home, when they add Gemini features. @MsMerope @kahomono

@briankrebs I recently got a business email using a term that is a notorious red flag lawsuit bait. I emailed the sender to politely point it out. They were horrified and admitted AI re-wrote it when they asked AI to make it 'more approachable, nicer.' They forgot to add "and 100% compliant with all laws and regulations."

@dianea @briankrebs Text only is the way. I was actually talking about the benefits of reading text only email with a friend whose company wanted better formatting in their html based emails. Yeah. Fuck that, text lines up perfectly and doesn’t need anything fancy. Simple does not mean deprecated or useless.