# Chatting with the assistant

Press **New chat**, write what you need, and press Enter. The assistant answers as it
writes, and shows each step it takes, such as reading a message or searching the web.
Shift and Enter start a new line. Press **Stop** to end an answer early.

## Choosing a model

The model's name is at the foot of the message box. Press it to choose another. The model
you choose answers your next message. See [Models, privacy and usage](/assistant/models) for what
the marks beside each name mean.

## Attaching files

Press **+** and choose **Add files**, or drop files onto the chat.

- Up to 5 files a message, each up to 10 MB.
- Pictures (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP), PDFs and text files. Only a model that takes pictures
  can look at one: today that is Claude Haiku 5.5.
- An attached file is kept in your drive, in the folder `chat-attachments`.

## Files the assistant makes

When the assistant saves a file to your drive, it shows a card for it under its answer.
Press the card to open the file beside the chat, with **Download** and **Open in Drive**.
A file it saves goes to the top of your drive unless you name a folder.

## When it asks first

Before the assistant does something that sends, invites or deletes for good, it stops and shows a
card that says **Needs your approval**, with what it would do. Press **Approve** or
**Deny**. When several actions wait at once, they are on one card, with **Approve all**
and **Deny all**.

It always asks before it sends mail, moves mail to the Trash, makes, changes or deletes
an event, answers an invitation, deletes a contact, or deletes mail or files for good. It
does not ask before it reads, searches, saves a draft, makes a folder, or moves a file to
the Trash of your drive, where it stays for 30 days.

## Changing an answer

Under each answer are **Copy** and **Retry**. Under your own message are **Retry** and
**Edit**, which lets you change what you wrote. Retry and Edit keep the old version: move between versions with the arrows
beside them. What an earlier version sent, saved or changed stays done.

## Keeping your chats

Your newest chats are in the sidebar. **View all** opens every chat, with **Active** and
**Archived** and a search box. Each chat's menu has:

| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Pin** | Keeps the chat at the top. |
| **Rename** | Gives it another name. |
| **Archive** | Moves it out of the list. **Bring back** returns it. |
| **Delete** | Deletes the chat for good. The files its messages attached go to the Trash of your drive. |

In a long chat the assistant may summarise the oldest messages to make room. The chat
still shows everything, and a quiet line says where the summary took over.

The assistant can also search your past chats when you ask it about something you
discussed before.