Google Bard can now access your Google apps, including Gmail, YouTube, Drive and Maps

Google has announced new integrations for its artificial intelligence tool, Bard, with its suite of apps and services. The tech giant's move aims to enhance Bard's responsiveness by enabling it to access and present relevant information from Google tools such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights.

The new feature, known as Bard Extensions, is being launched in English and offers users a novel way to interact and collaborate with Bard. For instance, if a user is planning a trip, they can ask Bard to gather relevant dates from Gmail, access real-time flight and hotel information, provide Google Maps directions, and even pull up YouTube videos about the destination. All these tasks can be performed within a single conversation, eliminating the need to switch between multiple apps and services.

In terms of privacy, Google assures they're “committed to protecting your personal information”, and that “if you choose to use the Workspace extensions, your content from Gmail, Docs and Drive is not seen by human reviewers, used by Bard to show you ads or used to train the Bard model”.

Google has also enhanced Bard's “Google it” feature, which allows users to validate Bard’s responses. Upon clicking the “G” icon, Bard will review the response and assess if there is corroborating content available on the web.

Furthermore, Google is simplifying the process of building on others’ conversations with Bard. Users can now continue a Bard chat shared with them via a public link, ask Bard additional questions on the topic, or use the conversation as a starting point for their own queries.