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How To Disable Gmail's Annoying New 'Smart Compose' Predictive Typing Feature (vortex.com)
"I've seen this 'Smart Compose' feature described publicly with a range of adjectives," writes Lauren Weinstein, "including intrusive, wonderful, invasive, creepy, accurate, loony, mistaken, helpful, misguided -- well, you get the point, opinions are all over the map...."
My foundational complaint here isn't that Google deployed Smart Compose, but rather that they enabled it by default without providing users even basic related information, including the all important "How the hell do I turn this damned thing off?" -- the very question filling my inbox of late!
So here's how you turn it off. It's easy, IF you know how.
One anonymous reader has another solution. "I'm just using Gmail in HTML-only mode now. Its actually far more usable than their new crap and I'm quite fond of the older look anyway." You could also just stop using Gmail -- but Weinstein thinks it's easier to disable the "Smart Compose feature.
"With the understanding that Google has great AI and is itching to use it whenever and wherever possible, I don't really need it analyzing my email drafts as I type them. At least in my case, its proposed wordings are nearly always -- what's the technical term? -- oh yes, WRONG.
"And the predictions intrusively and continuously interrupt my flow of typing as each one needs to be individually bypassed."
So here's how you turn it off. It's easy, IF you know how.
One anonymous reader has another solution. "I'm just using Gmail in HTML-only mode now. Its actually far more usable than their new crap and I'm quite fond of the older look anyway." You could also just stop using Gmail -- but Weinstein thinks it's easier to disable the "Smart Compose feature.
"With the understanding that Google has great AI and is itching to use it whenever and wherever possible, I don't really need it analyzing my email drafts as I type them. At least in my case, its proposed wordings are nearly always -- what's the technical term? -- oh yes, WRONG.
"And the predictions intrusively and continuously interrupt my flow of typing as each one needs to be individually bypassed."
I'm so glad that someone wrote an article telling me how to turn off smart compose. I was afraid that I'd have to type "how do I turn off smart compose" into my browser's bar, but this article has saved me all that effort.
Just pay for your email and quit using free shit.
I don't respond to AC's.
I think this feature had been going for a couple of days before I noticed it. I guess I'm used to editors doing similar things. But, the implementation also seems to be remarkably non-obtrusive. Nothing seems to have slowed or changed other than I can occasionally tab through a suggestion if I happen to notice it in time. I'll be leaving it on and gradually start using it.
What I find most surprising is that any of the suggestions are actually exactly what I intended to type. A lot of them are.
Of course, we will likely see the required article about some shocking suggestion within days now. I'm surprised it isn't already out there. Someone will sit and spend a few hours working to trigger something so that they can feed someone's agenda with a new viral campaign.
I did note that when typing an email discussing the reason for purchasing a new pair of running shorts that it guessed that I had gained weight and completed a sentence about that appropriately. Some might find that offensive :-)
It's Google Clippy! No one wanted MS Clippy either.
Oh, come on. Have some full-sized aortic pump!
A: Go into settings and turn it off.
Was that really worth a whole article?
It can't detect trivial finger place,emt typos such as in this sentence where the comma in placement should be an m and the m an n or that ;; in the ,iddle of a word should be ll
not using GMail has solved all my problems with GMail.
some karma... and kinda lukewarm about it.
"nudges" for emails google *thinks* you should have responded to?
"smart reply" to have buttons at the bottom of a reply with stupid things a 14 year old would say?
seriously, with this plus browsing history on blank tab page the google developers should just off themselves, so google can hire adults.
Those do not suddenly get strange ideas. I use mutt.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I've found the Android / Google keyboard autosuggestions quite useful in a chat app I use. I suppose I tend to frequently use the same phrases there.
tl;dr do: Settings > General > Write Suggestions Off > Save
You would think that page criticizing Google would make it easy to find in this lengthy text how to switch that feature off...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
You would think that page criticizing Google would make it easy to find in this lengthy text how to switch that feature off...
As a general rule, people are more interested in winning arguments than in solving problems.
Showing how easy it is to disable solves the problem, but weakens the argument.
With an ad company your content is the product.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
It saves me a lot of trouble when I am driving.
I have another complaint about Google's user interface.
After finding "Smart Compose" in "Settings," I decided to check "Smart Reply." I used my browsers search function to find it. Why does Google (and other companies) put topics in a random order, instead of ordering topics alphabetically. The order may be logical to Google, but I have no idea what they are thinking, and it is a pain to find anything.
What's even more interesting is that I don't have that option. I'm not sure why or how.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Are you using a Google Apps for Education/Business account? The “smart” compose feature probably hasn’t been deployed to you.
I noticed my work email, which is on Google Apps for Edu, does not have this - but my personal Gmail (which I generally avoid using) does.
#DeleteChrome
people are more interested in winning arguments than in solving problems
Or people just want to be listened to.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Google works by the number. If you complain, they don't give a dam. If many complain, or some PR is involved, they might.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
We've had it show up on the GSuite stuff at work, but still (so far) with the option to go back to the old view.
On the other hand, when it showed up on my personal email, the first time, there was a little pop-up that asked if I wanted to turn it off. But I guess that's too complicated for some people.
Exactly. Thunderbird + access Gmail via POP3. Problem solved.
Was coming here to post this. Although I gave in to the pressure eventually, and so use IMAP nowadays.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
If many complain, or some PR is involved, they might.
"PR"?
So, being co-enablers to the mass censorship & surveillance of roughly three billion people is not sufficiently-bad PR?
Yikes!
I think that says more about us than it does about Google.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Or even easier, just don't turn it on.
A few weeks ago a message appeared asking if I wanted to turn it on. I declined. That's all.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
A few weeks ago a message appeared asking if I wanted to turn it on. I declined. That's all.
You seem to be a lucky person.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
The predictive typing feature is IMO kind of amusing. I used the term "reach out" which I loathe, for the first time, because it suggested it.
In reality, the new upgrades have degraded my experience. It takes a LOT longer to load. Sometimes freezes while typing in my password. Sometimes accepts my password then kicks me back to the login screen (I get these issues on the latest Firefox or Chrome).
Ironically, the new Gmail works best on an older version of IE (11) which I guess doesn't support the feature bloat.
... works well with Gmail accounts. Set up is simple, and then you have control, not just of the composition process, but of your address books. Google will nag you to drop T-bird, claiming security reasons, but their logic is specious and self-serving.
"Exactly. Thunderbird + access Gmail via POP3. Problem solved. The entire concept of "webmail" is stupid and makes no sense."
This is for stupid people who use web-mail.
They also use Excel do do lists and databases and complain if they have formatting or speed problems.
Just ignore them.
Uhhh that isn't the point, its the point they made it default without asking. Or do you support MSFT constantly making Edge the default browser after updates? After all it too is easy enough to turn off, doesn't stop it from being annoying as hell.
Hell Gmail is getting so damned irritating with its constant UI changes and niggling irritants I've started using my Outlook address again, at least there the UI seems to stay the same for more than a week at a time and the changes seem to be under the hood stuff like faster load times and making it work better with Android and Apple, not annoying Clippy wannabe crap like this "Smart" compose that I swear is so bad I have to wonder if someone at Google is just trolling.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I find the predictive typing feature useful. You can just ignore it by not hitting Tab.
Regarding HTML only Gmail, I used it for a while, and it is fast. The one thing that made me go back to the Javascript user interface is that it did not fill in contacts properly. It was very tedious, and that was a deal breaker for me ... so I am back to the Javascript UI.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
I use TBird on my home PC. Fast CPU, lots of memory, SSD drive. It was nevertheless sluggish at times--it would just stop responding for a couple minutes, not sure why. (Haven't seen that in a couple weeks, possibly there's a bug fix out.) My laptop has a slower CPU and less memory, but it does have an SSD drive. TBird was terminally slow on that, so I usually use Webmail there.
Also, searches on TBird are very slow; much faster on Webmail +IMAP. I suppose that speed does depend on the email server... Why TBird can't have fast searches, I don't know. I think grep would be much faster (or 'find . -exec grep -H "some search string" {} \;'). For that matter, there are aftermarket search tools that are lightening fast, like MailStore Home. Problem is, the free version does not auto-run to re-build its database. (I can of course understand, they need to make money by selling a more complete version.)
BTW, if I ever had to give up TBird, I would desperately miss the Nostalgy plugin. I have *lots* of folders, and without Nostalgy it would be a real pain to manage them.
Five years or so ago, Google tested a new interface to GNews on a small group of users. I hear that it was disliked by that test group. I can't verify that, but I can verify this: after the testing, Google sent the new version out to everyone (in the US--for awhile, one could use the old version if you went to Google's Canadian news page). And there was a huge outcry on their comments page--thousands upon thousands of posts asking them to repent of their sin, and re-instate the old version. I saw only one positive comment from users, and this was clearly sarcasm. This went on for weeks. Finally one of Google's employees posted that they'd heard the feedback, and made changes to improve. But in fact their "improvements" addressed almost none of the complaints. And last time I looked, gnews was even worse than it was back then.
There was a similar outcry, perhaps a little less vocal, a couple years ago about Google Maps. Afaict, Google paid no attention. I've never used Gmail, so I don't know how people feel about the UI changes there (except for this thread, of course).
I would like to think that "if many complain...they might [give a damn]." But I don't believe it. Google, like Microsoft, knows what's best for you. Or rather, they think they do. (Going off-topic: Microsoft at least repented of the Windows 8 menu catastrophe, although there are still lots of things I detest about Win10. Some can be repaired by Classic Shell and WinAero Tweaker, some can't. And don't get me started on MsOffice.)
Tavarish, you forgot to say "You have nothing to lose but your chains!"
"Have you rebooted it? â
You're THAT guy. I see.
Raymorris: Your router at 67.3.4.1 has a routing loop with the one at 67.18.9.4. Both are sending the traffic to each other, in a circle.
Support: Let's reboot your computer.
Raymorris: May I please speak to someone who is allowed to touch your equipment.
My ISP's regional network manager gave me his cell.phone number after a couple of those calls.
the first time i wrote a message from the web ui after the third word it asked if i wanted to keep it. so, idk. obvs i said no.
Skype has the same auto suggestions that are just stupid. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to turn them off.
Are people really so unable to type 3 word answers without a special suggestion?
https://support.google.com/acc...
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie