In summary:
- PCWorld highlights ChatGPT’s unique conversation branching feature that allows users to experiment with different AI responses without losing original chat context.
- Evidence suggests Google Gemini may soon introduce this functionality, addressing a current gap since neither Gemini nor Claude offer native branching capabilities.
- This enhancement would significantly improve AI chatbot utility by enabling flexible exploration of dialogue options from any conversation point.
Ever wish you could take an existing AI conversation in an entirely new directory while keeping the original chat thread intact? ChatGPT makes it easy with its “branching” feature, but Claude and Gemini don’t offer any branching functionality–or at least, not yet.
While there’s still no word of conversation branching coming to the standard Claude chat interface, code spotted in the Gemini app hints that Google’s AI chatbot may soon get the feature.
Android Authority says it found “evidence” of “functional” chat branching in a recent build of the Gemini app, while noting that the feature “isn’t live yet” and “needs some tinkering to enable.”
So, what’s so special about chat branching? Put simply, it allows you to create a “branch” of an existing AI chat from any point in the conversation, handy for experimenting with different versions of a given chat without losing the original thread.
In ChatGPT, for example, you can branch the chat by navigating to any reply, clicking the three-dot “overflow” button (as pictured above), and selecting the “Branch in new chat” option.
When you do, you’ll spawn a new chat that starts at the specific branch point, allowing you to continue the conversation with new prompts while leaving the original chat as-is. You could also spawn a second branch from the first chat thread, or even create a branch of a branch.
Once you’ve branched a chat, you can do things like explore different options suggested by the AI (“tell me more about option B”) without unduly cluttering the chat context. You could also experiment how the AI reacts to slight differences in the wording or tone of your prompt.
Neither Claude nor Gemini have native branching features in their standard chat apps (Claude Code does let you “fork” a thread).
You could try branching a Claude or Gemini conversation by editing one of your replies or regenerating the model’s answers, but doing so wipes out the subsequent chat thread.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, PCWorld
Ben has been writing about consumer technology for more than 20 years, and now focuses his reporting on AI as it relates to the basic human experience. His coverage of artificial intelligence interrogates the latest LLMs, and how they can be used at work and at home to be best prepared for the AI revolution. “AI is going to change our lives sooner than we think,” Ben writes. “Our best way to adapt is by using it every day.” Ben has been a PCWorld author since 2014, and has covered everything from laptops to security cameras before launching PCWorld’s AI beat. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.