How to summarize and ask questions about your content in Dropbox Dash

Updated Apr 23, 2025
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The feature described in this article is available to all Dropbox Dash customers.

The Chat app lets you search across your team’s content using natural language. It pulls from your indexed files to give you accurate, context-aware answers in real time. You can use it to:

  • Summarize long documents
  • Identify key action items or decisions
  • Clarify technical or complex information

You can access the Chat app in the following places:

  • By clicking Ask in the search bar on dash.ai
  • By clicking Chat in the left sidebar on dash.ai
  • Using the Dropbox Dash Chrome browser extension

How to ask questions in Chat

To ask a question in the Chat app:

  1. Log in to dash.ai.
  2. Click Chat in the left sidebar.
  3. Click Ask a question.
  4. Enter your question in the text field at the bottom of the screen.
    • For example: “What are the top customer complaints in Q4?”
  5. If you want to add reference materials, click Add sources to search for or upload reference materials.
    • Note: You can only upload files that are 50 MB or smaller with one of the following file extensions: .csv, .docx, .pdf, or .txt.
  6. Click arrow-up (send) to generate your answer.

How to ask questions on any web page

When you install the Dash Chat browser extension for Chrome, you can ask questions about any web page you're viewing. It opens in a side panel, where you can get helpful answers, summaries, and content suggestions based on the page's content. To do this:

  1. Open the web page you’d like to ask questions about or explore.
  2. Click the Dropbox Dash icon to the right of the browser address bar.
    • If you don’t see the Dropbox Dash icon, click the extensions icon (puzzle piece), then select Dropbox Dash.
  3. Enter your question in the text bar labeled Chat or ask a question…
  4. Click arrow-up (send) to generate your answer.

Dash Chat generates answers based on the content of the page you’re viewing. You can ask follow-up questions and refine the answers by typing instructions in the text bar.

How to use the preset action buttons

The Dash Chrome extension includes preset buttons that make it easier to quickly get answers from the page you're viewing.

  1. Open the web page you’d like to ask questions about or explore.
  2. Click the Dropbox Dash icon to the right of the browser address bar.
    • If you don’t see the Dropbox Dash icon, click the extensions icon (puzzle piece), then select Dropbox Dash.
  3. Choose any of the following action buttons:
    • Summarize & Highlights: Get a concise summary of the page along with key points or major takeaways listed in bullet form.
    • Next Steps: Identify all action items, assigned roles, and any deadlines mentioned in the content.
    • Quick Draft: Turn content into a short internal email (with subject and body) and a 280-character version for chat or social updates.
    • Spelling and grammar: Review the text for spelling, grammar, and clarity, and return a clean, professional version.

How to add a custom action button

You can also create your own button to run a custom prompt on any web page. This lets you customize Dash Chat to your specific needs—whether it's summarizing reports, extracting key data, or generating content based on the page you're viewing.

  1. Open the web page you’d like to ask questions about or explore.
  2. Click the Dropbox Dash icon to the right of the browser address bar.
    • If you don’t see the Dropbox Dash icon, click the extensions icon (puzzle piece), then select Dropbox Dash.
  3. In the Dash Chat panel, click addAdd button.
  4. Click addAdd button in the upper top right.
  5. Select an icon and enter the button name.
  6. (Optional) To limit the button to a specific page, enter the address in the URL field.
  7. Toggle Any page like this on if you want the the button to appear on similar pages.
  8. In the Prompt field, enter the instructions for what you want the button to do.
  9. Set the permissions:
    • Select Only me to keep it private.
    • Select Publish to company to share it with your organization.
  10. Click Save.
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