(Credit: Florence Ion)
It's a controversial take in this day and age, but I use Google Gemini. Whereas many people feel reluctant about AI chatbots in this era of proliferating artificial intelligence, I've adopted it as an insistent assistant that the budget is paying for anyway. However, I've had to reconcile that, in order for it to be useful, I have to allow it access to my data.
Daily Brief, a new Gemini feature rolling out to paid users after its introduction at Google I/O this week, relies heavily on that data to deliver a daily, personalized morning summary with actionable details from Gmail, Calendar, and other parts of Drive. Google is pushing this new ability hard because it does exactly what the company's been promising its assistant will do for ages: be proactive.
I just set it up on the Pixel 10 Pro, so the jury is out on how essential it is to the day-to-day. But I can envision the building blocks of what's to come. Daily Brief is an improvement over competitors' similar features, and I see my future self justifying that all the data I'm handing over is worth the utility.
How to Set Up Gemini's Daily Brief
Setting up the Daily Brief is intense. You'll know you have it if you tap the Gemini app on your Android device or desktop and see it on the left-hand sidebar. Daily Brief will ask you to enable access to Google Workspace and other apps, including Gmail, Google Keep, Google Photos, and YouTube. I gave Gemini access to everything but YouTube Music, since that's not my primary streaming provider.
Daily Brief requires access to Personal Intelligence and Memory to provide the full utility, as explicitly stated on the official support page. You'll also need a paid Gemini subscription, as the feature is only available with a Plus, Pro, or Ultra plan on your personal account. Work accounts aren't eligible yet.
Once you've granted Gemini access to everything it needs, your Daily Brief is generated. The top of the page surfaces anything that is "top of mind"—it's labeled thusly. The section shows anything that needs immediate action. In my case, Gemini warned me that I had two Airbnb listings booked for the same weekend and that I might be charged twice for YouTube Premium on an upcoming bill. It's worth noting that Gemini fetched that information from my inbox, specifically from emails from Airbnb and YouTube.
If you have any "FYIs," Gemini will surface them next. My local comic book shop emailed me to let me know the titles I'd ordered had arrived and were ready for pickup, so Gemini made that the first point. Following that, a reminder that Mint Mobile was about to renew my annual plan automatically. Again, those were all Gmail notices, which speaks to how much an inbox email can reveal.
(Credit: Google/PCMag)Then, Gemini tells you to start "looking ahead." This part of the summary focuses on "longer-term goals." It's specifically the part where Personal Intelligence comes into play. It pulls from your Gemini chat logs, so depending on what you've been working on, the Daily Brief will surface it as a future project that requires check-ins. In my case, I assumed I could magically learn to DJ with the Mixxx app a few weekends ago. I've since abandoned the attempt, though Gemini is encouraging me to give it another try in the Daily Brief, complete with suggested follow-up prompts I should ask it to start learning transitions.
Does this inspire me to keep going with my newfound interest in DJing? Only a little. It's not like I have the time to invest in the practice and actually learn how to DJ with artificial intelligence as my teacher. But it does inspire me to keep checking in with Gemini.
Previously, when you'd log in, Gemini would ask, "What would you like to do?" requiring you to set the stage. The Daily Brief effectively flips that interaction; it takes on Google's new ethos of proactivity by prompting you to keep the conversation going based on past interactions. It's no longer just a passive AI waiting for direction. That's a big shift.
Daily Brief vs. Everyone Else
The first phone maker to hamfist this concept of a daily AI check-in was Samsung with the Galaxy S25 last year. Samsung calls theirs the Now Brief. By default, it lives as a widget on the home screen and updates throughout the day with varying greetings. To curate it, go to the settings menu and toggle on the options you're interested in. They range from Weather to Health, with the caveat that most of the functionality requires using Samsung's ecosystem of apps. YouTube is an option, but if you're interested in the news, for example, you still can't edit the sources and topics the Now Brief covers. And sometimes, the news is horrible!
Motorola's latest foldable, the Razr Fold, is all about productivity, so it has a feature called Catch Me Up via Moto AI. The tool looks at your Notifications and, like similar AI-aided functions on Google and Samsung's phones—and even Apple's iPhone—summarizes what it deems essential to know. It's not as robust as what Google and Samsung offer, but the intent is to help you develop a daily habit of checking in with the artificial entity.
Gemini's Daily Brief is slowly rolling out to paid users. Because it requires all that access to your Google data, it is much more helpful for figuring out the day than Samsung and Motorola's respective vanity offerings. I forgot that Mint Mobile charges me at the end of May, and I suppose I can thank Gemini for reminding me in the daily brief. But it's also reminding me how much of myself I have to give up to get that kind of help from the machine.
Is it worth it? Maybe my Daily Brief will let me know tomorrow.