Declutter your Gemini sidebar: Pin, Rename, Branch and Delete

Declutter your Gemini sidebar

The more you use Gemini for brainstorming or drafting communications, the faster your chat history fills up, making it harder to find past conversations. Google recently gave us the ability to delete Gemini chat prompts and customize our sidebar. Here are a few practical ways to help you manage your prompts to stay productive: 

• Pin important chats: Hover over any chat in the left sidebar under Recents, click the three vertical dots (kebab) menu, and select Pin. Select Unpin to remove the pin. 
• Rename chats: Gemini defaults to titling chats based on your initial prompt. Select Rename from the three vertical dots (kebab) menu. Use bracketed tags like [FLYER] Forage Field Day or [ADMIN] Meeting notes to group conversations in the sidebar.
• Branch to explore a new angle: If you want to test a new direction without derailing your main train of thought, click the three horizontal dots (meatball) menu below your Gemini response and select Branch in new chat. This creates a new standalone thread from that point while preserving your original conversation.
• Delete clutter: Select Delete from the three vertical dots (kebab) menu. If you want to delete the entire chat history, click Settings > Activity. 
• Use Temporary Chats for one-off conversations: Temporary chats are similar in concept to using incognito on a web browser. Temporary chats will not appear in your recent chats or your Gemini Apps Activity. Click New Chat and select the Turn on Temporary chat  button in the top right corner. If you close the tab with the temporary chat, start a new chat, or switch to a different conversation with Gemini, your temporary chat will be permanently lost.

Article by Karen Matthes, Extension Learning Technologies, klm@umn.edu