Google is finally bringing Chrome‘s Gemini side panel to India, New Zealand, and Canada starting today. The move adds support for more than 50 languages, including Hindi, French, and Spanish, which means millions of new users can now access the AI assistant on desktop, iOS, and Chromebook Plus devices without switching their browser language.
The assistant runs on Gemini 3.1 and lives in a side panel so you can keep browsing while asking for help. Need to summarize a dense article? Just ask. Wondering if you can make that recipe vegan? The AI can figure it out. It can even recall pages you visited earlier, which might finally let you close those tabs you have been hoarding for weeks.
Your other Google apps work inside the panel
The panel connects directly to Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube. That means you can schedule a meeting while reading an event page, pull location details when planning a trip, or ask questions about a YouTube video and get the key points pulled straight from the transcript.
The Gmail hook is particularly handy. You can compose and send emails without ever leaving your current tab. Just tell the panel what you want to say, and Gemini drafts the message. You get to edit before sending, so there is no risk of the AI going rogue with your words.
Gemini works across your open tabs and images
Here is where it gets interesting. Gemini can look at multiple tabs you have open and synthesize everything into something useful. Researching protein powders? The assistant can build a comparison table showing ingredients and prices across different sites. Planning a team offsite? It can gather suggestions from various pages and propose ice breakers.
The update also includes Nano Banana 2, an image tool built directly into Chrome. You can transform pictures on the fly by typing a prompt in the panel, no uploading or copy-pasting required. Want to see how a different couch looks in your living room? The tool handles it in the browser window.
Security and the road ahead
Google built these features with security layered in. The models are trained to recognize prompt injection attacks, and the system asks for confirmation before taking sensitive actions like sending emails. Automated red-teaming runs constantly to find weak spots, and Chrome’s auto-updates push fixes quickly when threats emerge.
This rollout covers India, New Zealand, and Canada for now, but Google plans to expand to more regions and languages throughout the year. If you are in one of these countries, the side panel should be live in your browser starting today.
