Say Goodbye to Gemini: A Two-Click Guide to Turning Off Google’s Assistant Everywhere

Feeling overwhelmed by Gemini popping up in your Google services? You're not alone. Google's AI assistant has been silently integrating across Gmail, Docs, Photos, and more, sometimes without explicit user consent. While AI features promise productivity benefits, many users prefer their Google services without these additions. Fortunately, there's a solution hidden in your settings.

Finding the hidden Gemini controls in your Google account

Google has been steadily rolling out Gemini AI features across its ecosystem throughout 2025, but not everyone welcomes these artificial intelligence additions. Whether you're concerned about privacy, frustrated by performance impacts, or simply prefer the classic Google experience, you might want to remove Gemini from your workflow.

The key to disabling Gemini lies within Google's “Smart Features” settings – an option that's surprisingly difficult to locate. Despite affecting multiple services, these controls are tucked away exclusively in Gmail's settings panel rather than being accessible from each individual application.

To access these controls:

1. Open Gmail in your web browser
2. Click the gear icon (Settings) in the upper right corner
3. Select “See all settings” from the dropdown menu
4. Navigate to the “General” tab
5. Scroll down to “Google Workspace Smart Features”

From this somewhat hidden location, you can manage how Gemini interacts with your Google services. This centralized approach means changes made here will affect Gemini's presence across Gmail, Docs, Drive, and other connected Google products.

Turning off Gemini across multiple Google services

Once you've located the Smart Features section in Gmail settings, you'll discover two critical toggles that control Gemini's presence across your Google experience:

Toggle Option	What It Controls
Smart Features in Google Workspace	Controls AI features that personalize your experience within Workspace apps
Smart Features in other Google products	Controls AI integration between Workspace and other Google services

To completely disable Gemini's functionality:

Turn off both toggles and click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page. After completing this process, you'll notice that while the Gemini button may still appear in some applications, clicking it will simply prompt you to re-enable Smart Features. This effectively prevents Gemini from analyzing your content or offering suggestions across Google's ecosystem.

What specifically gets disabled? When you turn off these features, you'll no longer see:

• Gemini summaries in Gmail
• AI-powered writing suggestions in Google Docs
• Smart categorization in Google Drive
• Automated event extraction from emails to Calendar

Special handling for Google Photos AI features

While the Gmail Smart Features settings disable Gemini across most Google services, Google Photos requires additional steps. Even after turning off the main Gemini controls, the “Ask Gemini” feature may continue working in Photos.

To completely remove Gemini from Google Photos:

Open the Google Photos app → Tap your profile picture → Select “Photos settings” → Look for the Gemini section → Toggle off “Ask Gemini” functionality. This separate control exists because Photos uses specialized AI processing for image recognition and analysis that operates somewhat independently from the broader Gemini implementation.

For users who appreciate some AI features but want to limit others, this separation provides more granular control. You might, for example, keep Gemini active in Photos for image searching while disabling it in your document workflows.

Why users are opting out of Gemini integration

The growing trend of users seeking to disable Gemini stems from several legitimate concerns. Privacy-conscious users worry about AI systems analyzing personal communications and documents. Others report performance issues, with AI features occasionally slowing down applications or consuming additional system resources.

Some professional users have noted accuracy problems with Gemini's suggestions, particularly in specialized fields. And many simply prefer the familiar, distraction-free interfaces they've used for years before AI integration became standard.

Google's decision to make these controls available, albeit somewhat hidden, acknowledges that user preferences vary widely when it comes to AI assistance. By following the steps outlined above, you can tailor your Google experience to the level of AI integration that works best for your personal or professional needs.