Google Docs: the Gemini assistant is finally not entirely useless

In late-November, the Gemini sidebar assistant got a major update.

It now uses Gemini 3 Pro, and it's good!

Some early observations...

First: document summaries are now solid.

Second: it's great to have top-tier Gemini intelligence right next to my document. For example, here it gave me several usable examples, written in almost exactly the style I wanted:

Gemini describes what it can do in Google Docs

Third: the inline editor is now fast and reliable for basic text manipulation: ¹

There are still major limitations, UI design problems, and much else to complain about. But: it's finally above the bar to use.

You'll need a Google Workspace plan, or an individual Google AI Pro subscription.

Footnotes

But why, why, is the "replace" button two clicks away? 😭😭😭 ↩