Workbranch › Guides

How to turn off Gemini Apps Activity

Gemini saves your chats to your Google Account by default. This guide shows where the switch is, what turning it off changes, and what Google holds on to anyway, and for how long.

Updated 18 October 2026

These steps are for personal Google Accounts and match Google's Gemini Apps Help as of October 2026. Labels in the app can shift a little between versions.

Turn it off on a computer

1. Go to gemini.google.com and sign in with the account you use for Gemini.
2. Open Activity. If you don't see it in the side panel, look under Settings & help.
3. Near the top of the page, the Keep Activity setting shows On. Click it.
4. Pick Turn off to stop saving from now on, or Turn off and delete activity if you also want your existing history gone.

If you aren't sure whether you'll need old chats again, choose Turn off first. You can still delete history later, but you can't undo a deletion. Our guide to exporting Gemini chats shows how to save a copy before you clear anything.

Turn it off in the Gemini app

1. Open the Gemini app on your Android phone, iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Menu, then your profile picture or initial, then Gemini Apps Activity.
3. Near the top, tap On, then Turn off or Turn off and delete activity.

In a phone browser, go to gemini.google.com, tap Menu → Activity, then tap On near the top and pick one of the same two options. The setting belongs to your Google Account, so turning it off in one place applies everywhere you use Gemini with that account.

What changes once it's off

• New chats stop appearing in your activity. They aren't added to Gemini Apps Activity, so they won't build up a history you can scroll back through.
• No training on your chats by default. Google says future chats won't be used to improve its AI models, unless you choose to send feedback.
• Chat management goes away. On personal accounts, finding, searching, pinning, renaming and deleting recent chats in the sidebar only work while Keep Activity is on.
• Gems keep existing, their chats don't. Gems you've built stay saved to your account, but conversations you have with them aren't saved.
• Most connected apps switch off. Only Device assistance, Gemini Notebook, Messages, Phone and WhatsApp stay available. The Google Workspace connection (Gmail, Drive, Docs and the rest) can't be used, which also means no Add from Drive when attaching files.
• Personalization from past chats stops. Google lists Keep Activity as a requirement for Gemini to tailor answers using your earlier conversations.
• The audio and Gemini Live recordings setting is unavailable, because it needs Keep Activity on.

What Google still keeps, and for how long

The 72-hour copies don't show up in Gemini Apps Activity, so you can't see or delete them yourself. Turning the setting off also leaves data in other Google services untouched: anything you exported to Docs or that a connected app received follows that product's own rules.

Good to know

• It's on by default for adults. If you're 18 or over and never changed it, Gemini has been saving your chats, with auto-delete after 18 months unless you picked 3 or 36 months.
• Need privacy for just one conversation? A temporary chat may suit you better than switching everything off. Click Temporary chat next to New chat. It isn't added to your activity or recent chats, isn't used to train Google's models, and is kept with your account for 72 hours. You can't use Gems, connected apps or personalized answers inside one.
• Want to keep history but stop personalization? That's a separate switch: Memory, under Personal context. Turn Memory off instead of Keep Activity.
• Work and school accounts: your Google Workspace administrator controls these settings. You may not be able to change them or see how long chats are kept, and temporary chats aren't available.
• Clearing the past is a separate job. If you picked plain Turn off, your earlier chats are still there. Our guide to deleting your Gemini chat history covers single chats, date ranges and auto-delete.

If it doesn't work

• The switch is missing or greyed out. Check which account you're signed in to. On a work or school account, the administrator decides, so ask them.
• Your old chats are still in Activity. Plain Turn off only stops saving new chats. Delete the earlier ones from Activity; the steps are in our deletion guide linked above.
• Gemini can't read your Gmail or Drive any more. That's expected: the Google Workspace connection needs Keep Activity on. Turn it back on if you rely on it, and delete chats you don't want kept instead.
• You can't find Activity in the app. It sits behind your profile picture: tap Menu, then your picture or initial, then Gemini Apps Activity. Or use gemini.google.com in your phone's browser and go to Menu → Activity.

Keeping only what's worth keeping

If you switched off saving because your Gemini history became a long, unsorted list, Workbranch is another approach: answers come from Google Gemini, and you file chats into projects and color-coded folders, pin the ones that matter and find them with ⌘K search. There's a 3-day free trial.

Sources

• Manage & delete your activity in Gemini Apps (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)
• Manage & delete your activity in Gemini Apps, Android and mobile browser steps (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)
• Gemini Apps Privacy Hub (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)
• Find & manage your recent chats in Gemini Apps (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)
• Use Gemini Apps (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)
• Get personalization based on your past Gemini chats (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)
• Connect the Google Workspace app to Gemini Apps (Gemini Apps Help, checked 18 October 2026)

Frequently asked questions