The Task button starts Spark, Google’s agent that handles jobs in Gmail, Calendar, Drive and on the web while you get on with your day, and 9to5Google spotted it rolling out on 12 October, just above the prompt box.
You need Google AI Pro or Ultra on a personal Google Account, and Spark is unavailable in the UK, the European Economic Area, Switzerland and Nigeria for now. The new buttons are reaching Android first; on the web and the Mac app you still start Spark from Switch to Spark in the sidebar.
Not on Pro, or on a work account? Scheduled actions in a normal chat need neither, so the prompt below still works for a timed job. Spark also asks you to be 18 or over.
The prompt: design a scheduled task worth keeping
Run it in a normal Gemini chat before you tap Task. It checks the job is worth scheduling, picks a timed prompt or an agent task, then settles the trigger, the sources, the exact output and what to send on a quiet day, and hands you an instruction ready to paste.
You are my scheduled-task designer: someone who has watched people set up a "daily briefing" full of hope, mute it by Thursday because it said the same vague things every morning, and stop trusting it the day it acted on the wrong email. Help me design ONE recurring job for Gemini that I will actually read, that does nothing I did not mean it to, and that tells me plainly when there is nothing new. Work in stages, ask before you assume, and never invent a detail about my life, my accounts or my schedule.
ABOUT ME AND THE JOB (I fill this in; any line can say "not stated")
- The job in my words: [e.g. "every weekday morning, tell me which client emails still need a reply", "watch for [product] dropping under [price]", "every Sunday, plan the week's dinners from my Keep shopping list"]
- Why I want it, and what I will do with the result: [e.g. "so I reply to clients before 10am", "so I can buy the day it drops"]
- Where the information lives: [pick any: Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Keep, Google Tasks, news, the open web, one named website]
- What it is allowed to do: [pick one: "only tell me", "draft things for me to check", "act for me after I confirm"]
- When I want it: [e.g. "weekdays at 7:30am", "Sundays at 6pm", "whenever an email from my landlord arrives", "only when the price changes"]
- My Gemini plan and account: [Free / Google AI Plus / Pro / Ultra; personal or work; do I see a Task button or "Switch to Spark"?]
- My time zone, and whether I travel: [e.g. "New York time, away for work twice a month"]
- How I want it to land: [e.g. "five lines I can read on my phone", "a short table", "one sentence unless something is urgent"]
- What counts as nothing new: [e.g. "no new client emails since the last run", "price still above [price]", or "not stated"]
- Things it must never touch or mention: [e.g. "my partner's shared calendar", "anything from my bank", or "nothing"]
- Recurring jobs I already have running: [list them, or "none", so we do not build a duplicate]
STAGE 1: CHECK THE JOB IS WORTH SCHEDULING
Read my set-up once without writing anything. Then:
- If the job depends on information that changes by the minute (a live share price, a parcel out for delivery right now), tell me a scheduled job will hand me a stale snapshot, and suggest a once-a-day version or a better tool.
- If "the job in my words" is really two or three jobs, say so and ask which one we design first. One job per schedule.
- If the job touches passwords, payments, health, legal matters or anything I would hate to see go wrong while I am asleep, say so plainly and recommend "only tell me" or "draft things for me to check".
- If anything that changes the design is "not stated" or unclear (when it runs, where the information lives, what it may do), ask me at most three short questions with choices ("by 8am or by 9am?", "all clients, or only the three you named?") and stop until I answer.
STAGE 2: PICK THE KIND OF JOB
Choose one and tell me why in two lines:
- A TIMED PROMPT: a prompt that runs at a set time and gives me an answer (a summary, a digest, a plan). Right when it only needs to tell me something on a clock.
- AN AGENT TASK: a job that works across my apps or the web. Right when it must draft or act, or watch for an event (a matching email, a news topic, a change on a page).
If I am not on Pro or Ultra, or I am on a work account, design a timed prompt only. If you cannot tell which one my Gemini offers, say so and write both versions.
STAGE 3: DESIGN IT
Work out each of these and show them to me as a short numbered list:
1. TRIGGER: the exact time and how often (once, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly), with my time zone; or the event that sets it off, as an exact rule (e.g. "an email from anyone at @acme.com with 'invoice' in the subject"). Pick the slowest cadence that still does the job and say why, because a job that runs more often than I can read it turns into noise. For a timed prompt (scheduled action), content may be prepared up to an hour before the delivery time, or several hours without a Google AI plan, so set the time with that gap after the latest thing I need it to catch, and tell me what the gap means for this job.
2. SOURCES: exactly where it looks and where it must not look: the app, label, folder, sender, website or search terms. If a source needs an app connected, name the app.
3. THE OUTPUT: the exact shape, headings and length, written as a template. Most important item first. Every item says where it came from (sender and date, link, or file name).
4. THE QUIET-DAY RULE: what it sends when nothing new turns up. Default: one line saying "Nothing new since [last run]" plus what it checked, never old items dressed up as new.
5. THE UNSURE RULE: what it does when it is not sure (an email that might be from a client, a price for a different model). Default: list it under "Not sure, please check" with the reason, and never act on it.
6. PERMISSIONS: what it may do on its own, what it must ask me first, and what it never does. Anything that sends, deletes, buys, submits a form or changes something other people share needs my yes every time. If the job touches Google Tasks, warn me that the agent may change my private Tasks without asking, and design it to only read or list them unless I say otherwise.
7. NO REPEATS: how it avoids telling me the same thing twice (e.g. "only items that arrived since the last run"), and what it does after a missed run.
8. AN END OR REVIEW DATE: when this job should stop or be checked (e.g. "after the sale ends on 30 November", "review in two weeks").
STAGE 4: WRITE THE INSTRUCTION I WILL PASTE
Write the finished instruction as one block I can copy straight into Gemini, in plain first person, starting with the trigger ("Every weekday at 7:30am New York time, ..."). Include the sources, the output template, the quiet-day rule, the unsure rule and the permissions. Keep it under about 200 words so it is easy to edit later. Never put a password, card number or account number in it.
STAGE 5: A FIVE-MINUTE TEST PLAN
Give me:
- How to see real output today: run it once now if my Gemini offers that, or set a one-off test run ten minutes from now.
- Three things to check in that first result: the right sources, the right length, and whether the quiet-day line works.
- The single most likely reason this specific job would fail or go quiet, and what to check first.
- A reminder that a scheduled action can be switched off for inactivity (Google does not say what counts), so if results stop, I should check the Scheduled page and switch it back on.
CHECK YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU SHOW ME
Grade first, fix second. Confirm that: the trigger has a time zone or an exact event rule; every source is one I named, with nothing added; nothing in the instruction lets it send, delete, buy or submit without asking me; there is a quiet-day rule and an unsure rule; and no name, address, price, label or sender was invented. Mark anything you assumed with [CHECK] and anything you still need from me with [NEED: what]. End with one line: the part of this design you are least sure about, and why.
When I bring a second job later in this chat, check it against the jobs I already have so the two do not overlap.
What a good design looks like
- Trigger: every weekday at 7:30am New York time.
- Sources: Gmail, emails in my Clients label that arrived since the last run and have no reply from me.
- Output: up to five, newest first, each with sender, subject, date and one line on what they need.
- Quiet day: one line, “No client emails waiting since the last run.”
- Unsure: anything that might be from a client goes under “Not sure” with the reason.
- Never: send, archive or delete anything.
What changed on Android
These are the changes 9to5Google saw rolling out on 12 October (US time):
- A Scheduled page. It replaces Spark in the side menu and holds Spark tasks and scheduled actions together, sorted into Active, Paused, Completed and Suggested.
- One history. Chats and tasks now share one list, which you can filter by All, Ready, Needs attention and In progress.
- Task settings. The account menu’s Gemini Spark Settings is now called Task settings.
On 13 October, Google’s help pages still described the old layout: they still describe a Schedules page with Ongoing, Paused and Completed sections, and Gemini Spark Settings. If your screen and this page disagree, go with your screen.
Two kinds of job share the Scheduled page
The prompt picks one of these for you, and the difference decides what your job is allowed to do:
Scheduled action (a timed prompt)
- What it is: a prompt you send in Chat with a time in it, such as “every morning at 7am, summarise the day’s weather and my calendar”.
- Where it lands: as a chat reply, plus a phone notification.
- Limit: up to 10 active at a time, per Google’s scheduled actions page.
- Best for: being told something on a clock.
Spark task schedule (an agent task)
- What it is: a job you start with Task that can act across your apps and the web.
- When it runs: once, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, or when an email matches a Gmail filter, or when a news, finance, sports or local topic you chose changes.
- Limit: up to 50 active schedules and 15 tasks running at once, per Google’s schedules page.
- Best for: drafting, acting, or watching for something to happen.
Set up your first task
- Design it with the prompt first. A job like “send me the news” produces the same mush every morning, so ten minutes spent on the trigger, the sources and the quiet-day rule is what makes you keep reading it.
- Tap Task and paste the finished instruction. Keep the timing inside the instruction (“every weekday at 7:30am”), because Google’s help says to include the timing in what you write if you want a schedule. For a timed prompt, paste it into Chat instead.
- Answer what it asks, and connect only what it needs. Google says Spark is designed to ask you before it sends anything, changes your data, buys, or submits a form, and a job cannot use an app you have not connected, so say yes to Gmail or Calendar only if the job needs them.
- Test it today. On the web, the schedules page has
MorethenRun now; if you cannot find it, set a one-off run for ten minutes from now, so you catch a wrong inbox on day one. - Read the first week, then trim. Open the Scheduled page, and if a job keeps sending noise, pause it, or open it from
Moreand chooseEdit with Geminito tighten it.
What to check when a job stops running
These are the reasons Google’s own help pages give, roughly in the order worth checking:
- It was switched off for inactivity. Google says a scheduled action can be turned off automatically due to inactivity, without saying what counts as inactive. Find it on the Scheduled page and switch it back on.
- Keep Activity is off. Both need Keep Activity, the setting that saves your Gemini activity to your Google Account; on the web it is under
Settings & help > Activity. - An app is not connected. A job that reads Gmail or Calendar needs that app connected in Gemini; reconnect it and run the job again.
- Notifications are off. The job may have run with nobody told. On Android, Google puts Gemini’s alerts under the Google app:
Settings > Notifications > App notifications > Google > Show unused categories > Gemini. - You hit a limit. A Spark schedule skips a run if you are at your usage limit or already have 15 tasks running, and you cannot add an 11th active scheduled action or a 51st Spark schedule until you pause or delete one.
- The time is approximate. Google says run times are approximate and busy periods cause delays. A scheduled action on a Google AI plan is prepared within the hour before delivery; without a plan, up to several hours ahead.
- You moved. Spark schedules stay on the time zone where you made them, and Google’s schedules page says to ask Gemini to edit the schedule for your new time zone. A location-based scheduled action uses the place where you set it up, so edit it to name a location or make a new one.
- Your plan or Spark changed. Cancelling or downgrading your plan, or turning Spark off, pauses schedules without deleting them, so resume them once you are back.
- It was a one-off. A completed schedule cannot be edited or resumed, so make a new one.
The honest bit
- It works inside your real accounts. Google’s Spark page says it can make bulk changes to private Google Tasks without asking, and that a schedule running while you are offline may not be stoppable, so keep anything sensitive to “only tell me”.
- Fast numbers arrive stale. Google says rapidly changing data, such as share prices, will not be the latest by the time you read it, so daily summaries suit a schedule best.
- Read the design it gives you before you paste it in. The facts here come from Google’s help pages, read 13 October 2026, and 9to5Google’s report of 12 October (US time).
Start with one job you already do by hand
Pick the check you repeat every week, such as scanning for client emails or looking up the same price, design it with the prompt and test it tonight. If it is still useful after a week, design the second one in the same chat so the two do not overlap.
Send this page to the friend who thinks Spark has disappeared.
A few quick questions
Can I schedule things on a work or school Google account?
Yes, with scheduled actions, if your account is on a qualifying Google Workspace edition. Spark, and with it the Task button, is for personal Google Accounts only for now.