Our Take
Google buried the off switch deep in Gmail settings, which tells you something about where the company's incentives lie on opt-out versus opt-in.
Why it matters
Workspace users are seeing AI features they didn't ask for interrupt their writing flow. The fastest fix requires navigating away from Docs entirely, signaling a design choice that prioritizes feature visibility over user control.
Do this week
Workspace admins: navigate to Gmail Settings > See all settings > Google Workspace smart features and toggle off the first option before your team starts filing complaints.
Gemini pop-ups are now default in Google Docs
Google has begun surfacing "write with Gemini" prompts in Docs, along with cursor-hovering "help me write" suggestions that some users report encountering. The prompts appear in a bottom-bar text box that is not immediately intuitive to close. Clicking the X icon closes only the current conversation, not the feature itself.
There are two ways to disable these prompts. The direct route: open any Google Doc, click "Gemini" in the top menu bar, select "bottom bar preferences," and toggle off the bottom bar. This removes the persistent UI element but may leave other smart features active.
The comprehensive route: log into Gmail, open Settings via the gear icon, click "See all settings," scroll to "Google Workspace smart features," then click "Manage Workspace smart feature settings." Here you can toggle off smart features across all Google Workspace products, including Docs, Gmail, and Calendar.
The off switch is buried by design
Neither solution is documented in the UI itself. Users discovering these settings typically do so by trial, error, or asking the AI to remove itself (a request Gemini deflects by suggesting users click the close button, which does not work as intended). The feature ships enabled by default with no clear path to disable it from within the product that displays it.
This is a standard friction pattern: easier to opt out of features after they've shipped and captured attention than to make opting in the user's choice. It works as a growth metric. It fails as a user experience when the default conflicts with the user's actual task—in this case, writing without distraction.
Disable smart features before users notice
Workspace admins should preemptively toggle off smart features at the organization level rather than wait for individual team members to file requests. The settings live in Gmail, not Docs, which means most users will not find them on their own. A single admin action prevents ten complaints.
Users who prefer the features can re-enable them individually. The inverse (users hunting for an off switch in a cluttered interface) is the path Google has chosen.