Google Gemini rolls out memory import, chat history

This is a smart, defensive move: in consumer AI, the hardest lock-in is not the model, it's the context users have already trained elsewhere.

• –Memory import targets the biggest switching cost for power users: personalized context, recurring projects, and conversational history.
• –The flow is intentionally user-mediated, which keeps trust higher than silent account migration but also means it is not fully seamless.
• –Google is clearly matching a broader portability race, with Claude and others pushing similar import features.
• –Renaming "past chats" to "memory" signals Gemini wants to act like a persistent personal layer, not just a session-based chatbot.
• –The real test is governance: users will want clear controls over what gets remembered, surfaced, and deleted.