Google Drive Gemini file tools are already incoming

We spend a lot of time here at Android Authority trying to get ahead of the next developments in apps and services, sharing them with you before they’re even announced. Sometimes we might spot something months and months before it’s ready to go live, and maybe even see a few in-progress revisions along the way. Other times, we’re barely done sharing our early preview with you, and the change is already starting to arrive. Today, we find ourselves soundly in that latter camp.

Google Gemini is an AI of many talents, and among them is the ability to analyze files and report on them. That’s been a paid feature since last year, and went free-to-use in Gemini back in February.

Yesterday we took a look at the latest update to Google Drive, and uncovered evidence of some new Gemini tools coming to Drive, including one that would offer file analysis — after all, why not bake a feature like that right into the cloud service you use to store your files? At the time, we had no real sense for when any of these might be ready to launch.

Well, today we start getting our answers, as Google announces that Drive is picking up the ability to conduct conversations about specific files.

This time, though, we’re once again back to paid-premium territory, as the feature is only available for Workspace Business, Enterprise, and Education users, as well as individuals with a Google One AI Premium plan. Knowing Google, that probably won’t be a situation that lasts forever, but this is one case at least where there’s a very real price on progress.