It’s official: Google Gemini is getting a major upgrade that’s going to make your chats feel a whole lot more personal—for better or for worse. The tech giant is rolling out new features that allow its AI assistant to remember your past conversations and preferences, creating a truly personalized experience. But before you get too comfortable, it’s worth taking a closer look at what you share and what this means for your data and how you can stay in control.
The Good: A Gemini That Actually Knows You
Gone are the days of repeating yourself to your AI assistant. Google’s new “Personal Context” feature is designed to make Gemini feel less like a tool and more like a collaborator who’s always up to speed. This setting, which is on by default, allows Gemini to learn from your previous chats.
For example, if you’ve been brainstorming ideas for a YouTube channel about Japanese culture, the next time you ask for “new content ideas based on my interests,” Gemini might suggest a video theme like trying a new Japanese food or traditional craft. Similarly, if you’ve discussed your favorite comic book characters, the AI could use that information to brainstorm a unique birthday party theme for you. The goal is to provide a more natural, relevant, and engaging conversation.
The Catch: Your Data is Now Part of the Equation
While the new personalization features are compelling, they come with a significant privacy trade-off. Google has confirmed that, with these changes, a sample of your chats and uploaded data may now be used to “improve Google services for everyone,” which includes training its AI models.
This is a departure from previous policies and means that your data, by default, is a part of Google’s training pipeline. The existing “Gemini Apps Activity” setting is being renamed to “Keep Activity,” and while you can still toggle it off to prevent your conversations from being used for training, this could disable other powerful integrations with Google Workspace and other services.
The Solution: Incognito Mode for Your Chats
To address privacy concerns, Google is also introducing “Temporary Chats.” This feature is essentially an Incognito Mode for Gemini. When you use it, the conversation won’t be saved in your chat history, won’t influence your future personalized responses, and won’t be used to train Google’s models. Temporary Chats are a great option for one-off, sensitive, or just plain embarrassing questions you don’t want the AI to remember.
These temporary conversations are retained on Google’s servers for up to 72 hours to allow for follow-up queries, but after that, they are deleted. This provides a balance between having a personalized, proactive assistant and maintaining privacy when you need it most.
The Bottom Line
Google is pushing the boundaries of what an AI assistant can be, moving from a simple question-and-answer tool to a truly personal companion. But with great power comes great responsibility, and Google is putting the onus on users to manage their own privacy settings.
The new features are rolling out to the Gemini 2.5 Pro model first, with plans to expand to the 2.5 Flash model and more regions in the coming weeks. If you’re a Gemini user, now is the time to head into your settings, familiarize yourself with the “Keep Activity” toggle, and get to know the new Temporary Chats feature. After all, the best way to get a great experience is to make sure you’re in the driver’s seat.
How will you manage your chats with Google Gemini?
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