Google Introduces ‘Help Me Write’ Feature For Gmail As It Doubles Down On AI Assistance

With the conclusion of Google I/O 2023 keynote, the search giant has doubled down on its promise to make AI more helpful for people by introducing a myriad of new quality of life features—including the new ‘Help me write’ feature for Gmail.

Sundar Pichai emphasized the convenience that Gmail brings to users and announced the introduction of the ‘Help me write’ feature as the next advancement for Gmail—after having previously launched features like Smart compose.

During the keynote, Sundar highlighted a specific use case that the new ‘Help me write’ feature can facilitate. For instance, if an airline cancels the flight and emails you an apology with a voucher code as compensation—the new feature can help you generate replies to such emails—with multiple ways to expand, summarise, and change the tone of the reply you will send. 

“Just type in the prompt of what you want—an email that asks for a full refund—hit create, and a full draft appears,” Sundar said.

He added, “It conveniently pulls in flight details from the previous email. It looks pretty close to what you want to send, but maybe you want to refine it further. In this case, a more elaborate email might increase the chances of getting the refund. ‘Help me write’ will start rolling out as part of our Workspace updates. And just like with Smart Compose, you’ll see it get better over time.”

With features like ‘Help me write,’ Google is trying to add more quality of life elements into its suite of products. Facing stiff competition from Microsoft-backed OpenAI—Google is trying to nullify the first mover advantage that OpenAI got with the launch of ChatGPT, and the new Microsoft Bing.