Google Gemini Adds Memory, Chat History Imports
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- Google Gemini is rolling out new 'Import Memory' and 'Import Chat History' features on desktop, letting users port stored preferences and prior conversations from rival AI chatbots
- The Import Memory flow has users paste a suggested Gemini prompt into their previous AI, then paste the output back into Gemini to transfer what their old chatbot knew about them
- Import Chat History accepts a .zip file of up to 5GB from the previous AI's export, and users can delete specific imported chats from the left-hand menu or wipe entire .zip imports from settings
- Google is renaming 'past chats' inside Gemini to 'memory,' aligning its terminology with how Anthropic and OpenAI label persistent user context
- The features are limited to free and paid consumer Gemini accounts on desktop — business, enterprise, and under-18 users are all excluded from the rollout
- The move comes weeks after Anthropic updated its own tool for copying another AI's memory into Claude, making this the first direct 'AI portability' response between the two chatbot providers
Why it matters: Google is matching Anthropic's earlier-this-month memory-import update with 'Import Memory' and 'Import Chat History' tools for Gemini, but the rollout is limited to consumer desktop accounts. The 5GB upload cap and the exclusion of business, enterprise, and under-18 users mean the two leading AI labs are opening portability only at the edges — free-tier and paying consumers first, highest-value segments last.
