Last year, a swarm of AI browsers from companies including OpenAI, Perplexity, Opera and The Browser Company launched with the goal of replacing Chrome with features like sidebar assistants and automated tasks. Now Google is deploying its own AI power by adding similar capabilities to Chrome, to the world bigger browser by market share.
While Google introduced Gemini to Chrome last September, the assistant lived in a floating window. With this update, the company will put the AI assistant in a persistent sidebar so you can ask questions about the current website or other open tabs.
One interesting feature that Google showed off to press ahead of today’s launch involved multiple tabs. When you open different tabs from a single web page, the Gemini sidebar understands them as a context group. This is useful when comparing prices or different products you are considering buying.
Before today, the Gemini feature in Chrome was only available to Windows and macOS users. With this release, the sidebar will also be available to Chromebook Plus users.
Google is also taking advantage of its recently launched Personal Intelligence feature, which connects to your Gmail, Search, YouTube and Google Photos accounts, allowing you to ask questions based on your own data. This feature is coming to Chrome in the coming months, which means you can ask Gemini in the sidebar about things like your family’s schedule or have it compose an email and send it without going to Gmail.
There’s also a new Nano Banana Chrome integration that lets you modify an existing image with another image or product you find while browsing.
However, the most ambitious feature is called auto-browsing, which aims to handle tasks for you by using your personal information and traversing websites on your behalf. For example, you can ask the representative function to go to a specific website and buy a product for you and find a discount coupon. The agent will ask for your intervention when performing data-sensitive tasks, such as connecting to a website or making a final purchase.
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Last year, the company explained that these features would use Chrome’s password manager or stored card information, but said that its AI models would not be exposed to any of these details.
This feature will initially roll out to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US
Browser-based agents are complex and often fail to complete tasks. Google’s demonstration, like many other AI demonstrations, involved shopping and travel planning. In real-world use cases, agents often do not have the intent or break when traversing different locations, and this would be a challenge for wider adoption.
The company said that in its early tests, users used the feature for tasks such as scheduling appointments, filling out tedious online forms, collecting tax documents, getting quotes for plumbers and electricians and submitting expense reports.
The company said Gemini sidebar support and Nano Banana integration arrive today, while the personal intelligence feature will be available in the “coming months.”
