You'll start seeing the "Ask Gemini" button and its sparkle icon at Chrome's top right soon if you're in the UK, thanks to a rollout that Google has already pushed out across more than 50 countries including Canada, India, New Zealand, Latin America, and the Middle East. This is actually big because it used to be locked behind AI Pro or AI Ultra subscriptions before they opened desktop access widely in late 2025. The catch you should know about — on your first use, Google shows a notice that Gemini gets permission to read what's on your open tabs so its answers stay relevant to whatever you're currently browsing. They specifically say "tabs are shared for more relevant answers" and clarify they share the actual content AND URLs of those tabs in new chats, but they also tell you you can change this setting whenever you want later.
The functionality is worth a look though because it means you can ask it to summarize long articles or compare info across multiple open tabs without any copy-pasting at all. It's got deep integration with Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube too — so instead of switching apps, you just ask the side panel to draft an email based on your current page, check a location in Maps, or add events directly to your calendar from within Chrome. They even built Nano Banana right into it for generating images directly in that sidebar window. And if any of this feels intrusive or cluttered — which I get because browser real estate is precious — there's an escape hatch: just right-click the Ask Gemini button at top right and hit "Unpin" to remove it from your interface entirely. It's fully optable whether you want the assistant visible or not, so no one's forced to keep it pinned if they prefer a cleaner browser view.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2212958/google-gemini-in-chrome-uk/
The functionality is worth a look though because it means you can ask it to summarize long articles or compare info across multiple open tabs without any copy-pasting at all. It's got deep integration with Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube too — so instead of switching apps, you just ask the side panel to draft an email based on your current page, check a location in Maps, or add events directly to your calendar from within Chrome. They even built Nano Banana right into it for generating images directly in that sidebar window. And if any of this feels intrusive or cluttered — which I get because browser real estate is precious — there's an escape hatch: just right-click the Ask Gemini button at top right and hit "Unpin" to remove it from your interface entirely. It's fully optable whether you want the assistant visible or not, so no one's forced to keep it pinned if they prefer a cleaner browser view.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2212958/google-gemini-in-chrome-uk/