Gmail for iOS will now use AI to filter push notifications

Google wants to use AI to help determine which emails you receive as notifications.

The Gmail app on iOS (it's not yet available on the Android version) now offers users an option to only get notifications for "high priority emails." The feature uses artificial intelligence to determine which messages recipients would deem important and lets them turn off notifications for all the others.

"Notifications are only useful if you have time to read them — and if you’re being notified hundreds of times a day, chances are, you don’t," read the update announcement. "That’s why we’re introducing a feature that alerts you only when important emails land in your Gmail inbox, so you know when your attention is really required."

Google just released an AI ethics guide on the tails of terminating a controversial contract with the Pentagon to help it develop military technology — developers working at Google protested having to create technology they disagreed with.

But the company's deep exploration into AI with a bevy of products that replace specifically human tasks such as scheduling appointments, has stirred backlash surrounding privacy issues.

And with this new email function that wants to reduce the number of push notifications people receive, AI has to understand the email contents to know whether to notify recipients.

This feature is part of the massive new Gmail redesign announced a few months ago that promised to introduce new capabilities to its smartphone apps — an updated desktop Gmail recently became available and will have no opt-out option by the end of this year.

To enable the new AI-based notifications, users must tap the drop-down menu on the top left-hand side of the app, select settings, tap the email address they want to use, notifications, and then "high priority only."

The feature will hit all Gmail apps on iOS devices within one to three days.