Gmail AI gets more intrusive

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Perceived Intrusiveness of Google AI

  • Many commenters report AI getting more “in your face” across Google products: Gmail, GCloud search, Calendar, Chat, and especially YouTube.
  • Gmail examples: “Help me write” prompts, AI reply buttons, calendar event extraction from emails, package banners at the top of the inbox, constant upsells (“use Gmail to run your business”, AI add‑ons).
  • Some find this feels like “in‑product advertising” to hit engagement metrics rather than solve real problems.

Disagreement on What Gmail Actually Does

  • Several users say they’ve never seen Gmail auto‑write text unprompted; for them it only activates after clicking “Help me write” or similar buttons.
  • Others see AI‑generated reply choices and calendar events created from emails, sometimes wrong and sometimes hard or impossible to delete.
  • A number of commenters question the article’s credibility: no screenshot, almost no detail, and nobody in the thread can reproduce exactly what’s described.
  • Explanations suggested: A/B testing, regional defaults, misclicking AI reply buttons, or misunderstanding of existing “smart features.”

Turning Off Features and Limits of Control

  • Multiple users note you can disable “smart features” in Gmail settings, and they’re off by default in some jurisdictions (EEA, UK, Japan, Switzerland).
  • Others are skeptical this will last and argue that with SaaS you ultimately don’t control the platform; features can be forced later to satisfy internal KPIs.

Alternatives and Workarounds

  • Some have moved or considered moving to Fastmail, ProtonMail, Zoho, Tutanota, Migadu, or self‑hosting; opinions differ on how viable self‑hosting is for avoiding spam filters.
  • Many avoid the Gmail web UI entirely via IMAP clients (Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc.) to escape AI and UI churn.
  • Users mention browser extensions, CSS, and ad‑blockers to strip Gmail ads and YouTube AI features (auto‑dubbing, auto‑translated titles, Shorts).

Broader Critique of Google and AI Product Management

  • Strong sentiment that Google optimizes for engagement metrics, not user satisfaction; users are “metrics in a promo packet,” not customers.
  • YouTube’s AI auto‑dubbing and forced translations are widely cited as especially bad UX, with no global off‑switch and extra clicks to restore originals.
  • Several see this as part of an industry‑wide PM problem: top‑down “More AI!” mandates despite user feedback mainly asking how to turn AI off.

Mixed Views on AI Utility

  • Some find AI features genuinely useful (email thread summaries, canned replies, LLM+RAG search over archives).
  • Others insist email is important enough that writing should remain intentional and human, turning all AI assistance off.