20 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Google’s Gemini AI could do
When we hear about Google’s Gemini AI engine these days, it’s almost always the result of some wildly ambitious and futuristic-sounding advancement.
You don’t have to look far to find examples. Gemini, like other generative AI systems, is increasingly being positioned as an agent that can handle complex tasks for you, as we heard about throughout Google’s I/O conference keynote last week. They span everything from shopping and purchasing tickets to planning travel and even meandering around the web on your behalf. And, of course, there’s vibe-coding your own custom apps without needing to know a lick of code.
That’s all well and good, but for most of us, it isn’t exactly the sort of stuff we’re relying on in day-to-day life. In reality, it’s Gemini’s more mundane and less marketing-worthy wizardry that’s likely to be most useful in an ordinary moment. And those are exactly the types of tricks that are underemphasized and go unnoticed—often because they’re off the beaten path and buried.
So today, we’re going to skip over the standard superlatives and focus instead on the wow-worthy little gems lurking within Gemini that you don’t usually hear about and might otherwise never encounter.
Check out the 20 truly useful Gemini abilities below and see how Google’s AI can actually help you.
(Note that, Gemini, like all generative AI systems, can at times be inconsistent and may relay inaccurate info. The use cases I’m highlighting here generally minimize that risk and focus on more confined data sets and task-oriented missions that play to the technology’s strengths—but, as always, proceed with caution and approach all results with a critical eye. AI may be powerful, but the human touch around it very much still matters. And that part’s on you to provide.)
1. Act as your on-demand memory expansion
Sometimes, the simplest feats really are the most valuable of all. The next time you find yourself facing some manner of random fact you need to remember—the name of someone’s partner or kids, the gate or door code at a particular place, the license plate on your vehicle or rental vehicle, or anything else imaginable—just tell Gemini:
“Remember that Susan’s husband is named Carl.”
“Remember that the gate code at Josh’s apartment is 8934.”
And so on.
Then, whenever you next need that nugget of info, all you’ve got to do is ask.
Gemini—your no-cost memory expander.
2. Set a timely reminder in no time
Speaking of remembering, don’t forget that Gemini can also perform the simple but supremely useful task of helping you recall specific things at specific times—thanks to its native integration with the oft-forgotten Google Tasks service.
No matter what device or interface you’re using, ask Gemini to remind you about anything at any date and time you want. It’ll set the reminder in Tasks and then pop up an alert when the right moment arrives.
Just make sure you’ve got the Google Tasks app installed and set up on your phone—be it Android or iPhone—so you see the notification.
3. Help you find your way back anywhere
One final reminder-related resource that’s worth tucking away in your memory bank—a two-parter:
First, if you’re using the Gemini mobile app on a phone, make yourself a mental note that you can always ask Gemini the only slightly embarrassing question of “Where am I?” So long as you’ve allowed the app the proper location-sensing permissions, it should then tell you roughly where you are—with a city name and, depending on your whereabouts, also potentially the name of a specific business or address.
Then, if it’s a place you want to remember for the future, ask Gemini to “remember that location as”—followed by whatever description you want (e.g., “remember that location as the best place to park in Westwood”).
You can then ask Gemini for that info anytime down the road, and it’ll zap you right back to the spot you need.
4. Dig up details from a video
You probably know that Gemini can summarize most any text you show it. One of its even more mind-blowing powers is its ability to summarize and analyze any video you feed into its metaphorical maw.
Now, when you’re watching something for pleasure, this probably isn’t a power you’ll need. But when you encounter a video that you need to parse for purely informational purposes and you don’t feel like sitting through 22 minutes to get a shred of knowledge that’d take you 10 seconds to read, you can upload the video file or simply copy and paste its URL directly into Gemini—then tell Gemini to “summarize this video” or “give me a short bulleted summary of the high points.”
Want important info without watching a lengthy video? All you’ve gotta do is ask.
If you’ve got something super-specific you’re seeking, you can also just ask Gemini about it:
“What does this person say about battery life?”
“Does the interview reveal anything about when the product will be released?”
“What sort of screwdriver does this say to use for installation?”
You get the idea.
5. Create your own personal podcast
On the flip side of that last item, if you’ve got a dense document that you need to digest and you think you’d do better hearing it as a conversation, try uploading the doc into Gemini and asking it to “Generate a 10-minute conversational podcast between two experts discussing the findings.”
You can get as nuanced as you want with your request, and Gemini should spit back out a personalized play-ready creation that’s ready for your aural consumption.
6. Skim over your emails
Provided you’ve got Google’s Personal Intelligence option available and active, you can always ask Gemini to summarize your most recent incoming emails—or even get more specific. For example, you can ask it what the last email from your lawyer said, what your roofer quoted as the estimate for repairs, or anything else that might make sense for your inbox.
7. Find you a killer deal
If you aren’t in a rush to make a purchase, try telling Gemini to monitor the price of a specific item and alert you if a certain kind of sale ever comes along.
You can get as broad or as specific as you want with it:
“Monitor the price of the Pixel 10 Pro and notify me if it goes on sale.”
“Monitor the price of the Pixel 10 Pro on Amazon and notify me if it goes on sale.”
“Monitor the price of the Pixel 10 Pro on Amazon and notify me if it drops below $900.”
Your future self will thank you.
8. Create custom product comparisons
All deal-seeking aside, Gemini can work wonders when it comes to comparing products and serving up exactly the info you need. Ask it to compare the battery life on two phone models you’re considering or to compare a series of specific refrigerators you see in a store and then tell you how they’re actually different—or even just to give you a table-style comparison of the most important differences across certain products from a purely practical perspective.
9. Decipher doctor-style handwriting
Got a note that you can’t for the life of you read? Snap a pic of it and ask Gemini to decipher the writing.
Say what? Gemini can interpret any handwriting for you—no matter how illegible it may be.
You’d be surprised how often it manages to interpret even the messiest script.
10. Act as your error-interpreting technician
No matter the device or appliance, whenever you next encounter an error code that looks like gibberish, ask Gemini to help figure out what it means and how you can fix it. The more specific you can get, the better—telling it the manufacturer and model name of whatever’s giving you the error, for instance, or just showing it a picture—but even if you don’t know all the details, there’s a decent chance it’ll be able to point you in the right direction.
11. Serve as your handyman helper
While we’re on the subject of repairs, you can show Gemini a photo of a random screw, connector, or component of any sort and ask what it’s called and where you can find a replacement—or anything else you might need to know.
Whether you’re a seasoned repair pro or a befuddled homeowner with next to no handy knowledge, the answer it coughs back may be invaluable.
12. Parse an impossible document
With the hopefully obvious caveat that you should absolutely consult with a lawyer for anything truly important and before making any consequential decisions, Gemini can be surprisingly helpful when it comes to going through dreadful-seeming documents filled with endless clauses and clusters of legalese. If nothing else, it can help you wrap your head around the info within and any sticking points you might want to mull over.
For instance, I fed in an agreement for an upcoming bouncy-house rental for a kiddie (and, if I’m being fully honest, also adult) party we’re having in our backyard. Gemini identified a couple of potentially problematic and not-at-all-necessary sections that were easy enough to ask the vendor to remove.
Similarly, I used it to compare a few vexingly similar insurance policies and translate the differences into real-world terms.
For those sorts of scenarios or even as a pre-lawyer-meeting preparation, Gemini’s ability to ingest mountains of complex material and then identify and explain important points can be indispensable.
13. Become your manual magician
Now that Google’s NotebookLM system is essentially integrated into Gemini, the feat I suggested in my recent collection of practical NotebookLM revelations can also apply to Gemini itself. That involves creating confined notebooks to hold specific manuals and then asking natural-language questions anytime there’s knowledge you need.
I did this with the digital version of a manual for a recently acquired vehicle and was blown away by how much easier it became to find info simply by asking what a particular button does.
On-demand answers are never more than a question away when you keep your manuals in Gemini for reference.
The same strategy can work equally well with manuals for appliances, electronics, you name it.
14. Perform fast web fixes for you
Human designers and developers are undeniably important when it comes to creating high-quality web work, but for those teensy little tweaks and frustrating fixes where you used to have to pester a professional, Gemini can now step in to help you come up with a correction—and help your coding-minded colleagues focus their time on higher-level concerns.
Try showing Gemini a screenshot of a website you’re responsible for and then explaining what’s wrong or what you want to have changed, while providing any pertinent details about your setup—that you’re using WordPress with a particular theme, for instance—and see what it suggests. It can sometimes take several rounds of back-and-forth iteration, but if you’ve got the patience (and a solid staging site for low-risk experimentation), it can get you to the finish line much more easily than you’d expect.
15. Cook up some spreadsheet sorcery
Speaking of coding chops, one area where specialized knowledge has traditionally been required is in the ever-confounding arena of spreadsheets. And while there’s certainly still a place for spreadsheet expertise, you can make your life a heck of a lot easier by letting Gemini guide you toward crafting complicated formulas.
Just fire it up, explain what you want to have happen, and ask it to give you the formula you need—for Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or whatever specific program you’re using. Or, on the flip side, paste a formula you’ve found somewhere into Gemini and ask it to tell you what, exactly, it accomplishes.
16. Create custom Chrome extensions
While full-fledged vibe coding can help you dream up all sorts of insanely customized complete programs, you might not be ready to take the plunge just yet. But you can dabble with the same sort of superpower and feel a sense of its addictive effects by asking Gemini to create a custom browser extension on your behalf.
Unlike native applications, web-centric extensions require no compiling or separate steps beyond just taking a series of plain text files Gemini gives you and then plopping them into your browser. (It’ll even walk you through the exact process of doing that.) And with all the time you probably spend working on the web, you can accomplish some pretty spectacular stuff by doing that—like changing the appearance of web apps to better suit your preferences or giving yourself pop-up panels with simple tools you’ve never quite been able to find.
A custom Chrome extension I created for storing and easily accessing commonly used color codes.
It’s also incredibly fun and empowering to play around with—without requiring you to venture into exceptionally geeky waters.
17. Become your prompt-mastering guide
Oftentimes, the biggest challenge with Gemini—or any AI chatbot—is figuring out the right approach for wording a request and getting the bot to do what you want. In an amusingly meta-twist, Gemini is actually quite good at advising you on the best way to phrase prompts for itself.
The next time you’re struggling to get the service to do your bidding properly, consider asking it what the best prompt would be for the purpose you have in mind. It seems silly, but it often works astonishingly well.
18. Wear the hat of an AI detection agent
In a similarly entertaining sense, Gemini is impressively effective at detecting images that were generated by Gemini—or another similar AI tool. It’s not foolproof, but it’s right up there with the best options we’ve got at the moment.
If you’re ever trying to decide if an image is genuine or AI-generated, ask Gemini and see what it says.
19. Answer in whatever way you like
Maybe you’re someone who prefers reading things in conversational paragraphs—or in short, succinct lists. Or maybe you like having a detailed, in-depth answer with a “TL;DR”-style summary at the start. Whatever the case may be, if you ask, Gemini shall oblige.
Tell the service exactly how you prefer to have your info provided as part of your next prompt—or, if you want it to always follow a specific formula, tell it to always answer in that way, and it’ll adjust your account-wide preferences. You can also check any saved settings along those lines and modify them directly on the Gemini instructions page.
20. Transform into an entirely new personality
Why stop at formatting? Gemini has the ability to completely adjust its personality and act in any way you want—again, either for a specific prompt or in a more generalized and ongoing sense.
You could ask it to become a tough but supportive coach, for instance, or a lifelong friend who’s always brutally honest and direct with you. Or you could request it to take on the role of specific jobs, like a veteran software engineer, a travel agent, or a legal adviser—or even some combination of different identities.
Welcome to generative AI—the one place where having a split personality is actually an asset.
The possibilities are practically endless, and you never know what might resonate and prove to be useful until you try.
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