When you receive an email in Gmail, you have likely noticed three small, pill-shaped buttons at the bottom of the message offering pre-written, automated responses like “Sounds good to me!” or “Thanks, I will take a look.” Google calls this feature “Smart Reply,” and it uses artificial intelligence to scan the contents of your incoming emails and predict what you might want to say next.
While some users find these automated suggestions helpful for quick acknowledgements, many professionals find them distracting, overly casual, or simply a privacy concern since the AI is actively reading the context of the email. If you prefer to write your own responses from scratch and want to declutter your inbox interface, you can completely disable the Smart Reply feature across your entire Google Account.
Disabling Smart Reply on the Desktop Website
If you primarily use Gmail through your computer’s web browser, you can turn off the feature within the main settings menu. (Note: Changing this setting on the desktop will usually sync the preference to your mobile apps, but it is always best to double-check).
- Open your web browser and log in to mail.google.com.
- Look for the Gear icon (Settings) in the top right corner of the screen, near your profile picture, and click it.
- Click the button labelled See all settings at the top of the Quick Settings panel.
- Ensure you are on the General tab (it should open to this by default).
- Scroll down the page until you find the section labelled Smart Reply.
- Select the radio button next to Smart Reply off.
- You must scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button, otherwise, the setting will revert as soon as you leave the page.
Disabling Smart Reply on the Mobile App (iOS and Android)
If the suggested replies are still appearing when you read emails on your phone, you can disable the feature directly within the Gmail mobile application settings.
- Open the Gmail app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
- Tap the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines, often called a hamburger menu) in the top left corner of the search bar.
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the menu and tap on Settings.
- If you have multiple Google accounts logged into the app, tap on the specific email address you want to configure.
- Scroll down to the “General” section and look for Smart Reply.
- Tap the toggle switch next to Smart Reply to turn it off (the switch will turn from blue to grey).
The change is instantaneous. When you open your next email, the screen will be completely clear of any pre-written, AI-generated suggestions, leaving you with a clean interface to compose your own thoughts.