Google Opens Gemini and Search to a New Wave of AI Apps
Google Opens Gemini and Search to a New Wave of AI Apps
Google’s latest move in the AI race is aimed less at building another chatbot feature than at turning Gemini and Search into places where outside services can do real work.
Earlier this year, Google introduced connected apps in Gemini and Search, allowing users to securely link third-party services and issue commands through its AI products. The use cases are deliberately practical: connect Canva to create a flyer, or YouTube Music to assemble a playlist.
Google had already assembled more than 50 Connected Apps in Gemini, including integrations from Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton, alongside its own products such as Workspace, Photos, YouTube Music and Google Home. Over the coming weeks, those apps are due to reach Search, where integrations have so far been more limited.
Now Google is widening the gate. Its Connected Apps Platform, announced in public preview for U.S. developers, lets businesses build, test and submit integrations for Gemini, Search or both. Developers can join a beta waitlist and monitor traffic, latency and error rates after an app goes live.
The company’s pitch is straightforward: integrations can mirror tools already built by OpenTable and Instacart, but become available to a far larger pool of developers. Developers retain elements of their identity, including verified logos and authenticated accounts, while connecting through cloud-hosted or Android Model Context Protocol tools.
For Google, the strategy resembles an early land grab for the so-called agentic web. Search optimization once determined which businesses were found through links; connected-app access could determine which services an AI assistant recommends, invokes and completes tasks with. The unresolved question is whether users embrace that convenience—or whether handing the AI layer the relationship weakens the standalone apps beneath it. Google has not said when the program will expand beyond the U.S. preview.
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