Your first chat

The chat box, tool by tool

Every chat box has a place to type, a way to attach a file, a model or mode picker and a send arrow. Gemini adds two more buttons for tools and connectors. Click the numbers or press Next to walk through each one.

123456

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1Type here Your question or instruction. Shift+Enter makes a new line; Enter sends.
2. 2Attach The plus opens a file picker: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, text or image. The model reads what you attach instead of guessing.
3. 3Tools Search the web, Canvas, Deep Research and Create images. Off by default; switch one on for that chat.
4. 4Connectors Data sources the answer may draw on, including web search and a document connector, if your tool has one.
5. 5Model Auto by default. Open it to pick a Flash model (fast) or a Pro model (careful).
6. 6Send Sends the turn. It grays out while the model is working.

BackStep 1 of 6Next

12345

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1Tools button One click opens the menu; pick one item per chat.
2. 2Search the web Grounds the answer in a secure, periodically updated web index. Not the live internet.
3. 3Canvas Opens the draft in an editor beside the chat so you can revise it in place.
4. 4Deep Research Runs a longer, sourced investigation and writes a report. Minutes, not seconds.
5. 5Create images Generates a picture or infographic from a description.

BackStep 1 of 5Next

1234

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1Type here "Ask anything." The same rules: say the job, the reader and the shape.
2. 2Attach The plus adds files: up to 10 per chat, 50 MB each; images 20 MB.
3. 3Model A picker with a fast default and a more careful option; the names change as vendors update their lineups.
4. 4Send Sends the turn.

BackStep 1 of 4Next

123

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1New chat Starts a fresh conversation with no memory of the last one.
2. 2GPTs Your custom GPTs: saved instructions and reference files, opened like a model of their own. Covered in GPTs, agents and skills.
3. 3Projects Folders that keep a job's files, standing instructions and chats together. Covered in Projects.

BackStep 1 of 3Next

1234

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1Type here "What objectives are we focusing on today?" Same rules as the others.
2. 2Plus menu Upload a file, pick a recent file, attach a project, or invoke a skill in this chat.
3. 3Mode Auto, Fast (Grok 4.3) or Expert (Grok 4.5). Start Fast; switch to Expert when the answer has to be right.
4. 4Send Sends the turn; the square stops a run that is taking too long.

BackStep 1 of 4Next

1234

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1New Chat A fresh conversation.
2. 2Automations Prompts that run on a schedule. See Automations.
3. 3Skills Reusable playbooks, including the ones that write Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files.
4. 4Projects Shareable folders of files, instructions and chats.

BackStep 1 of 4Next

The plus menus on the public apps

The screens above come from one set of accounts. The public apps, checked on 25 September 2026, put more behind the plus button, and their sidebars have moved on too.

Screenshot by the author, 25 September 2026.

Screenshot by the author, 25 September 2026.

Screenshot by the author, 25 September 2026.

ChatGPT's public sidebar now reads New chat, Scheduled, Library, Plugins and Explore; GPTs are on their way out, as GPTs, plugins and what replaces them explains.

A turn, then a follow-up

You type; it answers; that pair is a turn. It remembers the whole conversation while the chat is open, and nothing between chats.

• Set the frame first"Draft a one-page read-ahead for the CO from the attached three messages" gives it the reader, the shape and the source. "Summarize this" gives it a guess.
• Edit in turns"Shorter." "Use the memo format I pasted." "List every claim the attachment does not support." Short corrections work better than one long restatement.
• Start fresh when it driftsIf it keeps returning to a version you rejected, open a new chat with only the source and the request that still matter.

Ask for the shape you want

What a grounded answer looks like

When a connector or web search is on, Gemini shows its work: the searches it ran, then an answer with numbered citations you can open.

1234

Screenshot by the author on a sandbox account, 16 September 2026.

1. 1Your question Ask for the document and the paragraph, and say "cite" so the answer carries references.
2. 2Its searches Each gray line is a search it ran. Open one to see what it found.
3. 3The answer with citations Bold document names and [source: n] tags. A tag points at a document you still have to open.
4. 4Follow-up box The same buttons as the first turn; the connectors stay on for the whole chat. Under it Google prints its own reminder: the answer may be inaccurate, so double-check it.

BackStep 1 of 4Next

When it makes something up

Vendor facts checked 25 Sep 2026; re-verify before relying on them.