Google Opens Gemini and Search to a New Wave of App Builders
Google Opens Gemini and Search to a New Wave of App Builders
Google has moved to widen the ecosystem around Gemini and Search, opening its Connected Apps platform to U.S. developers through a public-preview waitlist. The program lets businesses submit integrations designed to work directly inside Google’s AI products.
The shift builds on connected apps Google introduced in Gemini and Search earlier this year. Users can securely link third-party services and ask the AI to take specific actions: Canva can help design a flyer, while YouTube Music can assemble a playlist. Google’s wager is that AI assistants may become an alternative front door to services that users once reached by opening individual apps.
The practical challenge, as the platform opens, is scale. Google already lists more than 50 Connected Apps in Gemini, including Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton alongside its own products. Those Gemini integrations are due to arrive in Search over the coming weeks; Search currently supports a smaller set including Instacart, Canva, YouTube Music and Yahoo Fantasy Football. Meditation app Calm is also preparing to launch across both surfaces.
For developers, the pitch is distribution with some control. They can choose whether an app appears in Search, Gemini or both, connect through a cloud-hosted or Android Model Context Protocol server, and use Google’s console to register, test and submit it. Once live, they can monitor traffic, latency and error rates while retaining verified branding and authenticated accounts.
A second account frames the move more simply: developers will be able to build the kind of in-product integrations already demonstrated by OpenTable and Instacart, and the waitlist opens immediately to U.S. developers. Google has not said when Connected Apps will expand beyond the preview or the U.S.
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