You can now transfer your conversations and personal information from other chatbots directly to Gemini

When it comes to AI-powered chatbots, there is currently a war for consumer attention. All the big chatbot providers are looking to grow their number of users, and in a bit of a coup for itself, Google has made it easier for other chatbot users to defect to Gemini.

The company on Thursday announced what it calls “switchers,” new tools designed to let users transfer “memories” (basically pieces of personal information) and even entire chat histories from other chatbots directly to Gemini. The company says users can easily share “key preferences, relationships, and personal context” this way.

The idea is to make Google Assistant AI much easier to adopt, as users won’t have to spend a significant amount of time retraining Gemini on who they are and what they want.

The memory feature works like this: Gemini will suggest a prompt that the user can enter into their existing chatbot, which will then generate a response that can be copied and pasted back into Gemini. In this way, Gemini trains the user on the types of information that would be useful to know about them, while also helping to facilitate the transfer of that information back to their archive.

“Once you import these memories, Gemini will understand the same basic facts you’ve shared with other apps, like your interests, your sibling’s name, or where you grew up,” the company says. “Instead of starting over from scratch, you can get Gemini up to speed on the things that are most important to you.”

When it comes to importing chat logs, Google says all you need to do is upload them in a zip file. It’s relatively easy to export chat logs via zip files from most chatbots, including ChatGPT and Cloud. The company says this allows users to “seamlessly pick up where you left off.” Google says users also have the ability to search those old chats.

ChatGPT remains the biggest kahuna in the consumer chatbot market, with OpenAI announcing last month that it had reached 900 million weekly active users. Gemini — despite Google’s massive distribution advantages, including its virtualization across Android devices and the Chrome browser — has lagged in consumer engagement. Last month, it shared its own numbers during Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call, saying Gemini had surpassed 750 million monthly active users. The move is clearly aimed at helping Google catch up.