How to Access and Use Gmail Help Me Write AI Feature?

Google’s I/O on 10th May was all about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. A few days ago, it went live for iOS, iPadOS, Android, and even the web version. The first edition of this feature was something called Smart Reply, which showed suggestions at the bottom using AI.

The second version is much more advanced, directly letting you fill in sentences or phrases by swiping. The latest version is even more personal and nuanced, and Google calls it “Help me write.” Artificial Intelligence is subtly making its way into our daily lives, which is the next step.

Help me write wasn’t the only new feature. Google Maps got much better with a birds-eye view, and the Magic Eraser got an update to the Magic Editor. It repositions some aspects of your photo to fit the frame better. It also improves the lighting and makes your photo look much better. It’s like applying a very sophisticated preset.

Bard got a lot of improvements, and it’s no longer in Beta. AI shows you relevant and contextual prompts. Bard has direct integration with Google services, too, making things easier. Bard also brings generative AI images, and Google Search got a complete revamp with AI. We also saw some hardware at this event, but the primary focus was software and artificial intelligence.

Many of these are in Beta, and we expect a release before the end of 2023. Of course, one of the new headline productivity features was Help Me Write.

What is Google Help Me Write?

Google’s Generative AI can create a complete mail draft with a prompt. AI is already beneficial for drafting professional-looking articles, resumes, essays, and more. You don’t have to visit Bard’s website to get an AI-made Gmail draft.

It helps us write emails more effectively, creating a usable draft you can personalize and edit later. It’s a promising new tool that can save a lot of effort from manual typing.

Aside from creating a draft, it can help you with existing content. You have the option to formalize or informalize the tone. There are options to make it sound highly casual or very serious, and it alters the sentences without changing their original meaning.

You can also add more details to your mail to extend the length and make it look more professional in some cases. In other situations, the mail you’ve written might be too long. There’s an option to shorten the mail, too. All this is done while maintaining contextual relevance, and it doesn’t alter the meaning of your email.

You also have the option to obtain feedback from Google about your mail. This competes very well with Grammarly’s already fantastic AI writing system. It’s available only in English; we expect to see more languages soon.

As mentioned before, this simplifies things since you don’t have to visit another webpage, type a prompt, copy, and paste it. Gmail will do all that instantaneously. You can use it to draft invitations, return requests, cover letters, leave requests, and formal and informal greetings.

You can replace your current draft with a new one as well. Gmail also uses machine learning models to predict your Gmail search results better, pulling in more relevant and intelligent results.

How to Access Google Help Me Write feature?

First, you’ll have to sign up for Google Workspace. Since the entire AI feature set is in Beta, you must first gain early access. You can skip this section if you’re already in Google’s Worklabs program. If not, follow the below steps to enroll in the beta program.

1. Go to the official Google Worklabs webpage and click on the blue button that says “Join the waitlist.”
2. Log in with a relevant Gmail account.
3. If there’s a waitlist, you’ll have to wait some time before joining the program; it ranges from hours to days. If there’s no waitlist, you’ll directly get in.
4. Once you’re on the waitlist, it’ll inform you. You can directly start using the feature now. Ensure you’re using the same account that’s part of Google Worklabs.

Important Notes: This is effectively a beta program, and Google isn’t responsible for any mistakes or errors from AI. It’s essential to proofread what the AI has written before making major submissions, especially professional or academic ones. As more users test it, the more data Google gets. This data that Google feeds into the AI will improve the Help Me Write feature in the coming months. Once more reliable and refined, it’ll get a more public rollout, mostly in stages. Currently, the emails from this feature look heavily AI-written, and it’s easy to spot. You have to give it a human touch and make some edits to make it more convincing. Software dedicated to finding out AI-written content can quickly figure this out, too.

Also, the Help Me Write feature is different from the Refine feature. Help Me Write drafts a full mail, which you can later edit to add a human touch. We’ve already explained Formalize, Elaborate, and Shorten- these are part of the Refine feature.

How to use Google Help Me Write?

On Android and iOS

• Ensure you install the Gmail app on your iPhone or Android phone. If you don’t have it, install it from the Google Play Store (Android) or App Store (iOS).
• Open the Gmail app and sign in with the same Google Account with access to Google Workspace. It won’t work if you sign in with a different account, so make sure you’re signing in/ are signed in with the same Google account where Workspace is enabled.
• Tap on the compose option at the bottom right.
• Look to the bottom right of the compose window; you’ll find an option that says Help Me Write. Initially, it should show Welcome to Workspace labs, and the Help Me Write button should have a star with a magic wand-like pen.

• Enter a relevant prompt. Here, you can enter a valid and short prompt for cover letters, invitations, return requests, and more. It doesn’t have to be a long paragraph, but a short and brief description is enough. You can also add dates, monetary values, addresses, company names, etc. Give the AI as much information as possible to work with to ensure the most accurate results.
• Tap on the Create button.
• Once it finishes generating, tap on the insert button to complete the rough draft. You can make your edits from here.
• If you don’t want the entire draft, choose between Formalize, Elaborate, Shorten, and other options. Pick an option from this menu.
• To accept the new choices of sentences, tap on replace. If not, tap on Close to keep your existing draft. As usual, hit send once you’re done.

Note: The I’m Feeling Lucky option directly updates the entire draft with creative suggestions and auto-accepts the suggestions.

On a Personal Computer

• Open your browser of choice and open Gmail on your PC.
• Ensure you’re logged into the Gmail account you used to sign up for Google Workspace Labs. If not, this won’t work.
• Tap the compose button at the top left.
• Click Help Me Write (Labs) and click Help Me Write. The process is now broadly similar. It should show you a page that says Welcome to Workspace Labs.

• Here, you’ll need to enter your prompt. You can type a short descriptive paragraph with enough information for the AI. It’ll submit a generic response if you’re very vague with details.
• Please tap on the Create button and wait for it to finish generating.
• If you’re happy with the response, you can continue. If not, you can choose to Formalize, Elaborate, Shorten, or click “I’m Feeling Lucky” to autofill everything. You also have the option to accept and reject some suggestions. Hit send once you’re done.

Note: Help Me Write only fills in the content of the mail but doesn’t write a subject for it. You’ll have to enter your subject manually.

If you’re unhappy with the AI-generated suggestions, you can give Google direct feedback, explaining the issue. You also have the option to re-generate the draft with the same prompt. You have this option for mobile apps as well.

Conclusion

Those methods were how to get Google’s new Help Me Write feature on all currently supported platforms. In its current state, specific prompts don’t work the best, but giving it just enough details will significantly assist the AI.

It saves you time and effort and is also very convenient, but it’s not good at highly personalized or professional prompts that need skills. This feature was also supposed to work on the Google Docs app, but it’s not currently. With future updates, Google will probably enable this since it’s in the early testing phases. We’ll inform you if there are any more updates regarding this breakthrough feature.