You can now talk to your Gmail inbox, as seen at Google IO 2026
You can now talk to your Gmail inbox, as seen at Google IO 2026
现在你可以直接与 Gmail 收件箱对话了：Google IO 2026 大会亮点
Google isn’t finished infusing AI into your inbox. On Tuesday at their IO 2026 developer conference, the tech giant announced an expansion of its “AI Inbox” functionality for Gmail, which is adding conversational AI features. That means you can ask Gmail about things in your inbox instead of typing in search terms. The company says the Gemini AI-powered feature, called Gmail Live, will help you quickly find information buried in your inbox.
Google 在将 AI 融入收件箱的道路上并未止步。周二，在 IO 2026 开发者大会上，这家科技巨头宣布扩展 Gmail 的“AI 收件箱”功能，正式引入对话式 AI 特性。这意味着你无需再输入搜索关键词，而是可以直接向 Gmail 询问收件箱里的内容。Google 表示，这项由 Gemini AI 驱动的功能名为“Gmail Live”，旨在帮助用户快速找到埋藏在收件箱深处的信息。
Perhaps you need information about your upcoming flight, the time of your dentist appointment, the door code for your Airbnb rental, or some details about an event at your kid’s school, for instance. Before, you’d have to type in keywords in the search box (or maybe type in someone’s email address or domain) to try to narrow down your search. That doesn’t always make emails easy to find, however, especially if the search term is something found across several messages.
例如，你可能需要查找即将到来的航班信息、牙医预约时间、Airbnb 的门锁密码，或是孩子学校活动的详情。在过去，你必须在搜索框中输入关键词（甚至可能需要输入对方的邮箱地址或域名）来缩小搜索范围。然而，这种方式并不总能让你轻松找到邮件，尤其是当搜索词出现在多封邮件中时。
“Gmail Live can answer naturally phrased questions, respond to follow-up questions, and pivot if you need to interrupt it,” Devanshi Bhandari, product lead for Gmail, explained in a briefing ahead of Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, where the feature was first introduced to the public.
“Gmail Live 可以回答自然语言提出的问题，响应后续追问，并且在你需要打断它时灵活切换话题，”Gmail 产品负责人 Devanshi Bhandari 在 Google 年度开发者大会（Google I/O）前的简报会上解释道，该功能也在此次大会上首次向公众亮相。
It’s another way that Google is trying to showcase how its AI technology can drive real-world improvements to products used by millions of consumers, at a time when many outside the tech industry are questioning the value of AI, as new data centers get built in their backyards, driving up their power bills. Being able to point to something as simple as making it easier to find something that’s lost in your email inbox — an experience nearly everyone has suffered at some point — could be a practical and positive use case for AI … or at least, Google hopes.
在科技行业之外，许多人正质疑 AI 的价值——尤其是当新的数据中心在他们家门口拔地而起并推高电费时。Google 正试图通过这种方式展示其 AI 技术如何为数百万消费者使用的产品带来实际改进。能够指出像“更轻松地找到丢失在收件箱里的信息”这样简单的事情——这几乎是每个人都经历过的痛点——可能成为 AI 一个实用且积极的用例……至少 Google 是这么希望的。
Bhandari demonstrated Gmail Live to reporters, asking the tool a series of questions about things in the inbox, like a child’s show-and-tell project and their class trip, plus hotel and flight information for a trip to Detroit. Similar to using a stand-alone AI chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT, Gmail users can ask these questions aloud in natural language, and the chatbot responds.
Bhandari 向记者演示了 Gmail Live，向该工具询问了一系列关于收件箱内容的问题，例如孩子的展示项目、班级旅行，以及前往底特律的酒店和航班信息。与使用 Gemini 或 ChatGPT 等独立的 AI 聊天机器人类似，Gmail 用户可以用自然语言大声提问，聊天机器人会直接给出回应。
In the demo, Gmail Live also understood nuances between things like “field trip” and “trip” and was able to jump from one topic to another, Bhandari pointed out. Plus, the AI can pull granular details from emails, like a hotel room number, or infer which people you’re asking about, even when they’re not explicitly named. Similar voice technology is also coming to its to-do list, Google Keep, the company noted.
Bhandari 指出，在演示中，Gmail Live 还能理解“实地考察（field trip）”和“旅行（trip）”之间的细微差别，并能在不同话题间自由切换。此外，该 AI 还能从邮件中提取细致入微的信息，例如酒店房间号，甚至在你没有明确提及姓名时，推断出你所询问的对象。Google 还提到，类似的语音技术也将应用于其待办事项应用 Google Keep。
Notably, Gmail Live is not replacing traditional Gmail search — it’s just another option. Google may have learned that not everyone is ready for an AI-only experience after it “upgraded” Google Photos with AI-powered search to much backlash. Google Photos later rolled back the feature, making the use of AI optional after numerous complaints.
值得注意的是，Gmail Live 并不会取代传统的 Gmail 搜索，它只是多了一个选择。Google 可能已经吸取了教训——在之前将 Google 相册“升级”为 AI 搜索功能并引发强烈抵制后，他们意识到并非所有人都准备好接受纯 AI 的体验。在收到大量投诉后，Google 相册随后撤回了该功能，将 AI 使用权改为可选。
Gmail is also gaining other new capabilities, including ready-to-send drafts, instant file access, and the ability to manage to-dos by marking individual tasks as done. Plus, the AI Inbox experience, which launched earlier this year, will expand beyond Google AI Ultra subscribers to reach Google AI Pro and Plus subscribers as well. This allows you to see an overview of the tasks and items to catch up on that are buried in your inbox, all on one page.
Gmail 还获得了一些其他新功能，包括即发草稿、即时文件访问，以及通过标记单个任务为“已完成”来管理待办事项的能力。此外，今年早些时候推出的“AI 收件箱”体验将不再局限于 Google AI Ultra 订阅用户，还将覆盖 Google AI Pro 和 Plus 订阅用户。这让你可以在一个页面上概览收件箱中埋藏的任务和需要跟进的事项。
The voice-powered Gmail Live feature, however, will roll out later this summer and will initially be limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers.
不过，语音驱动的 Gmail Live 功能将于今年夏天晚些时候推出，初期仅限 Google AI Ultra 订阅用户使用。