📄 Gemini now edits files inside your chat
Create and revise PDFs, Docs, Sheets and Slides inside Gemini, with PDF editing also on mobile.
Three-minute read. In today’s issue: Gemini edits files inside your chat, Canva Brush changes existing designs, Lap searches your photos locally, and a chart on when AI saves workers time.
DOCUMENTS
Gemini now lets you edit files inside the chat
What changed. On 29 October, Google opened file generation, preview and editing inside the Gemini app to all users where the app is available. You can type directly into a file or highlight a passage for Gemini to revise.
What it means for you. A rough set of notes can become a client brief or tracker you can correct in the same window, before opening it in another app.
The first step. Ask Gemini to turn notes from your last meeting into a one-page PDF brief. Change one line yourself, then highlight a paragraph and ask Gemini to tighten it.
The limitation. PDF preview and editing work on web and mobile. Docs, Sheets, Slides and other supported formats work on the web only for now; check spreadsheet formulas before sharing.
Google on editing files in Gemini (blog.google)
Just shipped
Canva Brush can now make supported edits to an existing design in Canva AI, from changing a line of copy to reworking slides. It is available to Canva Pro subscribers now, with wider access coming later. Try one small revision to a design you already use and check what it changed. (canva.com)
The rest of the day
📝 Notion’s “Last edited by” field now identifies the agent, MCP client or automation behind a change, making a puzzling edit easier to trace. (x.com)
🎬 Runway’s Character Swap app lets you put a different character into a video scene. It is a quick way to mock up a campaign character before committing to a shoot. (help.runwayml.com)
📱 On iPad and iPhone Duo, Claude now opens what it makes beside the chat, with a full-screen option. That makes it easier to check a draft against your instructions while travelling. (x.com)
🔄 Claude replaced Haiku 4.5 with 5.5 in the model selector for Free, Pro and Max users on 29 October. Existing chats remain, but continuing one now uses 5.5; Team and Enterprise are unaffected. (support.claude.com)
🛠️ Built with AI
Hyperagent made a video that lays a proposed landscape over footage of an empty park, so a client can see the before and after rather than imagine it from a plan. A small design or renovation business could use the same move for its next proposal. (blog.google)
🧰 The Open Source Toolshed
What it is. Lap is a free desktop photo manager that can search images with local AI, including by subject or similar image, without requiring an upload or account.
Who it’s for. A small team with years of product, event or project photos that are hard to find in folders.
How hard it is. Download the Mac, Windows or Linux installer, point Lap at your existing photo folders and let it index them; no coding needed.
GPL-3.0-or-later licence. (github.com)
📈 The AI Odometer
Source: Epoch AI/Ipsos, “One in five US workers now delegates tasks to AI instead of other humans”, 6 August 2026. Chart by Caroline Falkman Olsson, Yafah Edelman and Amreeta Das, CC BY.
Among tasks where AI does most or all of the work, the share rises to 53%.
What it means for you. More AI involvement went with more reported time savings in this survey; it does not prove AI caused the savings. Pick one repetitive task you already delegate, time it once as usual, then let AI do most of the next attempt and compare.
Too early
Claude says pull-down search for past chats, projects and settings is coming to iPhone and iPad. It has not given a release date, so there is nothing to switch on yet. (x.com)
🎮 One for the road
I made a five-minute AI short for Sloptoberfest. Nobody Else follows Octavia, a solo founder running her company with AI agents and robots. Watch Nobody Else.