Gemini now remembers your instructions across all of Google Workspace

What happened: Starting September 2, 2026, Google is gradually rolling out — over up to 15 days — an expansion of persistent custom instructions for Gemini. Until now they only worked in Google Docs, since May; now they also cover Ask Gemini in Drive, Ask Gemini in Chat, and the Gemini side panel in Gmail, Sheets, and Slides. The feature reaches all Google Workspace customers with access to these tools, on both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. It extends a principle Google first introduced for Docs alone: instead of setting instructions separately in every app, there is now one central place that applies across your whole Workspace account.

What it means for you: Until now you had to repeat your preferences — tone, language, response format — in every thread and every tool separately. Now you set them once, and Gemini follows them across Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and Chat:

• Consistent tone everywhere — "always reply in English, formally, no emoji" will apply in Gmail and Sheets alike
• Context about your role — tell it once that you, say, lead a team at a manufacturing company, and Gemini adapts its answers across every app
• A fixed output format — like "summaries always as bullet points with action items at the end" for both email recaps and meeting notes
• Less style-editing — if Gemini's answers have felt too wordy or too obviously translated, say so once instead of correcting every single reply

The benefit scales with how many Workspace apps you switch between in a day — if you mostly live in one app, you'll notice less; if your day jumps between Gmail, Sheets, and Docs, the difference shows up immediately.

How to get started:

1. In any Workspace app with Gemini, open the side panel and click the main menu icon (three lines).
2. Go to Settings → Personalization and find "Your instructions for Gemini in Workspace."
3. Write your instructions in plain language — a few sentences is fine — and save.
4. Test the instructions on something neutral first, like summarizing a public text — that confirms Gemini is actually following them before you rely on them for work correspondence.

Watch out for: The rollout is gradual and can take up to 15 days to reach every app — if you don't see the option right away, check back in a few days. The feature also requires a paid Google Workspace plan with Gemini access (not every license includes it), and your admin needs to have it enabled for that app. And since your instructions can include context about your role or company, don't put anything sensitive in there — this sets the AI's behavior, it isn't a place to store internal data.