Read provides an extension for Chromium based browsers (Like Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, etc). Installing the browser extension is as easy as going to the listing in the Chrome web store and clicking "Add to Chrome" or from the extension listing page of other web browsers.
- Features highlights
- Read for Gmail
- Read for Google Calendar
- Automatic meeting detection
- The extension popover
- Permissions
- Updates
- Related articles
Features highlights
The extension integrates Read into Google Calendar, Meet, Gmail, Zoom and Teams, and offers a variety of features to improve the user experience. Some of the most popular and powerful features are:
- Gmail - From your inbox, you can view email thread summaries, and also see contextual information from your related Readout topic reports
- Gmail - Email Digests: Read will highlight emails that are flagged as important or that likely need your reply, and also generate a draft reply with contextual information pulled in from your meetings
- Meetings - You can get notified when your Read Assistant is currently in a meeting, and open the live meeting dashboard with one click
- Meetings - If you join a Google Meet, Zoom or Teams meeting that doesn't currently have Read in it, you'll see a pop up asking if you want to add Read to the call manually
- Google Calendar - You can toggle the Read Assistant on or off for your upcoming meetings straight from Google Calendar, and take advantage of Read's "smart scheduling" capabilities
This article will walk through these and other features of the extension in more detail.
Read for Gmail
As long as you have connected your Gmail to Read, you can access several powerful features straight from your Gmail inbox.
Summarize your email threads
One of these features is the email thread summary. Read will analyze your emails and automatically generate summaries for the threads that most warrant it. Read will not attempt to generate summaries for emails that we believe are spam (e.g. unsolicited outreach from someone you've never exchanged emails with before) or emails that come from automated systems as opposed to from real people.
Emails with a summary will be marked in your inbox with this icon:
Hovering over this icon will show a single sentence "key takeaway", but if you click into the email you'll see a more detailed summary, which you can also copy or forward:
Readouts provide full context
When you connect multiple different apps (like your meetings and emails) to Read, you'll start receiving Readouts, which are topic-based reports that allow you to easily keep track of and take action on the major projects and conversations that are happening across all of your apps.
With the browser extension, you can see the related conversations from your meetings, chat, and other emails, summarized directly in your email threads:
With Readouts in your email, you'll always know the full story behind any thread, allowing you to put information into context and write your best reply.
Generate smart draft responses
Read doesn't only summarize your information, it also helps you be more productive when replying to emails. For one, when Read sees an email that it thinks you should reply to, it'll highlight the sender and mark it with this icon in your inbox:
Open up the thread, and you'll see that Read has generated a suggested draft response:
Read's drafts are smarter because they don't just take your emails into account, they also pull knowledge from your meeting reports. So suppose you have an email that's asking you a question about something that was just discussed in one of your meetings - Read will include that information when proposing a response.
Read for Google Calendar
The Read browser extension includes several features that are integrated natively into your Google Calendar, letting you add or remove Read on upcoming meetings, mark them as flexible, and choose from a list of recommended times:
You'll see the "Invite Read" and "Flexible Meeting" toggles both when creating a new event and when viewing the details of an event scheduled in the future.
The recommended times take into account actual historical data from your Read account (as well as any other Read users that are invited), to identify times when you typically have high engagement and punctuality. It will also prefer to recommend slots that don't impede focus time; meaning it will encourage scheduling meetings immediately before or after other meetings on your calendar to maximize your periods without meetings.
These calendar overlay features can also be disabled in the extension settings:
Smart Scheduler and Google Calendar Integration
The Read AI browser extension integrates with Google Calendar to show meeting scores in your calendar and provide scheduling suggestions. Plus, use a sharable scheduling link that highlights your best times to meet.
Automatic meeting detection
When you join a Google Meet meeting, Read will prompt you during the meeting if Read is not already on the call. For Zoom or Teams meeting, if Read is not already on the call, we will prompt you before the call, letting you add Read manually. Please do not add Read using the extension if the meeting is already on your Read Calendar. Read will join those meetings automatically 3-5 minutes before the meeting start time. If you add Read manually through the extension, the meeting report title will not match the meeting title in your Read Calendar. If it is past the meeting start time and Read still didn't join your scheduled meeting, then you should add Read using the extension. The extension is particularly useful if the meeting is an ad-hoc/instant meeting that is not scheduled or added to your calendar.
This notification can be disabled or enabled from the extension settings. To open the extension settings:
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Click the extension icon from your browser, make sure the extension is pinned.
Read AI extension icon
- Click your email address located at the top right corner of the pop-up to open up the settings.
Read for Google Meet
If you choose to add Read, you can also pick a name for your report at that time.
If you dismissed or disabled the alert in the past, you can still access this feature by clicking the Read icon along the bottom of the Meet screen during a meeting.
Read for Zoom or Teams meetings
This functionality requires additional permissions.
When a user with the Read extension enabled (and "all_sites" permission enabled) lands on the meeting redirect web page after clicking a meeting link (Zoom or Teams), the extension checks if Read is already invited to this meeting. If Read is not invited, you'll see a pop-up notification letting you add it.
Explanation of each option:
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Don't show this again
- Never show again for this particular meeting. If this action is selected on a Zoom meeting, Teams meeting would still show this notification.
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Not Now or closes or ignores the pop-up
- No further action is taken
- Read will not be deployed to the meeting
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Yes, Add Read
- Read will be deployed to the meeting
If Read is already invited to this meeting, this pop-up will not show. And this pop-up only shows up on the meeting redirect web page.
The extension popover
When you click on the Read icon from your extensions menu, you'll get instant access to several of Read's core features right from the window that pops up:
From here, you can:
- See any in-progress meetings, with buttons to easily join the call (if it was on your calendar) or open the live meeting dashboard
- Quickly copy your Smart Scheduler Link for letting others easily schedule meetings on your calendar
- Have easy access to your recent meeting reports and a link to the Read dashboard
- View Read's recommendations for your meetings to make them more effective
- Adjust settings for the extension, like whether to enable or disable various features
We recommend pinning the extension in Chrome so that the Read button is always visible and easily accessible at the top of your browser window.
Permissions
When the extension is initially installed, users are not prompted to grant "all sites" permission. The extension installs with minimal permissions - allowing Read for Google Meet and Read for Google Calendar features. These 2 features will continue to work with these minimal permissions.
New features:
- Read for Gmail (some users might already have this enabled)
- Automatic meeting detection for Zoom and Teams meetings (new features)
By clicking the Enable More Features button, a pop-up with a list of additional permission will be shown. Click Allow if you would like to enable the above features
Updates
On June 9, 2025, Read updated the extension to include functionality to detect the presence of Read in Zoom and Teams meetings. Additional permissions are required for it to work.