It happened to me: I opened a Google Doc to write an article and immediately came across a text box inviting me to “write with Gemini.” I looked for a button to clear the flashy AI screen, but couldn’t find it. It made me angry.
Now, instead of writing the article I’m supposed to be working on, I’m writing about how to remove AI popups from your Google Docs screen, since it took me some time to figure it out. You are welcome.
The first solution is quite simple:
- Click “Gemini” in the top menu bar above your document.
- From the drop-down menu, select “bottom bar preferences.”
- You can choose to disable that bottom bar, which will remove the AI box at the bottom of your screen.
Full disclosure: I got so infuriated when I set out to look up “bottom bar preferences” that I initially missed it completely. Instead, I clicked “Ask Something Else” and asked Gemini to help me cut him out of my life. The AI may not be human, but Gemini seemed to have some kind of survival instinct, because it was telling me to click the “X” icon. That doesn’t eliminate Gemini. He simply closed the conversation, the one in which he asked how to turn off. Suspicious!
Other aggrieved Google Docs users have reported features I haven’t found yet, such as a “Help me write” function that hovers over your cursor while you work. This seems like something that would bother me, so it’s probably worth nipping it in the bud before it’s too late. Benjamin Franklin once said“Prevention is better than cure.” (I was talking about fire safety. I’m talking about product design.)
Instead of turning off each individual AI feature like a game of “whac-o-mole,” we can turn off “smart features” in our Google workspace through Gmail.
- First, navigate to your Gmail inbox.
- From there, find the gear icon for Settings and click on it.
- Then, at the top of the menu, click “See all settings.” (But while you’re here, you should pick a fun theme for your inbox. Would a little fantasy kill you?)
- After clicking “See all settings,” scroll to the middle of the page to find “Google Workspace Smart Features,” and then click “Manage Workspace Smart Features Settings.”
- Here you are presented with two options: one that allows you to disable smart features in Google Workspace (like those annoying Gemini pop-ups in Google Docs) and another that applies to other smart features (which I personally find less annoying). I only disabled the first option, but if for some reason you hate that Gmail automatically creates calendar events for your flights, this is where you can fix it.
You should now be safe from annoying Gemini pop-ups that interrupt your writing process in Google Docs. You can rest assured.
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