To pull a Gemini chat you sent to family, go to Your public links

Two Google help pages disagree on one point: whether deleting a shared Gemini chat also removes its public link. The page on sharing chats says: “If any part of a chat in a public link is deleted earlier, the public link is also deleted.” The page on managing activity says: “If a shared chat is deleted, it doesn’t delete the related public link.” Both sentences could be read on Google’s pages on 15 Oct 2026.

This article does not guess which page is right. Don’t rely on deleting the chat to remove the link: remove the link directly in the public links section, then open the old link to check. That works whichever page is correct.

Who can read a public link, and where to remove it

Google’s Gemini help page on sharing chats says that anyone with the link can read the chat and can pass the link on to others. What gets shared is the whole chat, including documents, images and videos that Gemini created. Images you uploaded can be downloaded by whoever opens the link.

To make the link stop working, delete the link itself. According to the sharing page, on a computer go to gemini.google.com, click Settings & help at the bottom of the page, choose Your public links, then click Delete public link at the end of the row for the link you want to remove. The Delete all links button removes every link at once. The page does not describe the steps in the phone app, so this article doesn’t point to another route. The menu names on your device may appear translated.

If you keep chatting after creating a link, the new part does not appear on the shared page. Whoever opens the link sees the chat as it was when you shared it.

Turning off activity saving is not the same as not saving

Many people also turn off Keep Activity and believe Gemini keeps nothing. According to the activity management page, for users aged 18 and over this setting is on by default. When it is off, the chat is still kept with the account for up to 72 hours so that Google can provide the service and handle feedback. These chats do not appear in your activity list.

When it is on, activity older than 18 months is deleted automatically by default. You can choose 3 months, 36 months or no automatic deletion.

Do three things, in this order

Ha, a made-up character, asked Gemini to build a table of the household’s monthly spending, sent the link to her husband, then deleted the chat to tidy up and assumed that was that. If she follows the order below, she doesn’t need to know which Google page is right.

1. Open the public links section and see which links are still there. Delete the link for any chat that holds household figures, documents or photos of relatives.
2. Delete the chat in the activity section. The activity page lets you delete one item, a date range or everything.
3. Open the old link, preferably in a private (incognito) window. If the page still shows content, the check isn’t finished. Go back to step 1.

Two more points from the page: deleting a chat with a Gem does not delete the Gem, and if the account belongs to an organisation or school, an administrator may decide the settings, so you may not be able to change the retention period. For that kind of account, ask the administrator instead of guessing.

Google’s help pages don’t say whether the sharing feature differs by country. The surest approach is to open the right section on your own device and do step 3.

Sources

1. Gemini Apps Help — Share your chats from Gemini Apps — Google’s help page on public links: who can open them, what is shared, how to delete a link, and the sentence saying the public link is deleted when part of a chat is deleted from activity.
2. Gemini Apps Help — Manage & delete your activity in Gemini Apps — Google’s help page on Keep Activity: kept for up to 72 hours when it is off, automatic deletion after 18 months by default, and the sentence saying deleting a shared chat does not delete the public link.