Since bursting onto the scene in November 2022, ChatGPT has been making consistent updates.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at one of the latest features – a direct integration with Google Drive.
OpenAI has been rolling out the Google Drive integration over the last few weeks, and it’s now available to all ChatGPT users – including users with free plans. The integration allows you to upload files directly from your Google Drive into your ChatGPT conversations.
Once you’ve uploaded the file, you can ask ChatGPT to do whatever you want with the file. You can summarize it, translate it, describe it, or even rewrite it as an epic poem.
We’ll show you how to get started with the new integration, and give you a few examples of what it can do.
How to use the Google Drive Integration in ChatGPT
To begin, just click on the file (paperclip) icon next to the chat window.
Then, choose the new option that reads “add from Google Drive”.
You’ll need to sign in with a Google account and authorize ChatGPT to access your Drive before you can proceed.
Once you’re signed in, you’ll see a familiar portal where you can browse or search for any file that you want to send over.
TIP: Wait for your file to appear as a suggestion rather than clicking on search. As we were testing the new feature, we generally found that Google Drive placed more accurate and consistent search results in the dropdown that appears underneath the search bar. Actually clicking on the search icon would typically turn up several bad matches, and often wouldn’t include the file we were looking for.
Click on the file you want to upload to ChatGPT, and the file will start loading right away.
Then, enter any prompt you want, and send your message to ChatGPT as usual.
While this update isn’t a revolutionary change to ChatGPT by any means, it definitely adds some real convenience if you do most of your work in Drive.
It’s a lot quicker to attach a file directly than to open it in Drive, download it to your computer, and re-upload it to ChatGPT.
What file types does the Google Drive integration in ChatGPT support?
ChatGPT can view and analyze text documents, slide presentations, images, and video files. However, based on our most recent tests on 06/04/24, the AI encounters several errors and has pretty limited functionality when it comes to video files.
Try using the ChatGPT to extract key insights from your docs, create new iterations of your images with DALL-E, or suggest speaker notes in your presentations.
Additionally, ChatGPT can only extract text from Slides presentations. If you want ChatGPT to take a look at any of the images in your deck, you’ll need to upload them separately.
What are the limitations of the Google Drive integration in ChatGPT?
The Google Drive integration can read and analyze the files that you add to your conversations, but it cannot create or edit files directly in your Drive. Sending ChatGPT a prompt like “Create a file in my Google Drive called ‘Example Doc’” won’t work.
It also can’t search for files on your behalf, so a question like “is there a file called ‘Example’ in my Drive?” won’t return a helpful answer.
Instead, its features are limited to reading and interpreting the files you choose to share with ChatGPT directly.
Integrating AI into routine workflows
For many of us, ChatGPT has become an essential part of our daily work, so integrations with apps like Google Drive are a natural fit.
It’s not an earth-shattering change, but it’s a nice little update to be able to upload files directly from Drive into ChatGPT, and it’s hopefully laying the groundwork for a more robust integration to follow.
If you’d like to learn more about saving time with AI and workflow automation, be sure to check out the other posts on our blog or our YouTube channel. You can also follow XRay on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
