Google opens Gemini and Search to apps from outside developers

A new route to users

Developers can build apps and submit them for connection to Google products. They first connect to a cloud MCP server, or to Android MCP through the AppFunctions API, then register and test the app and send it to Google Connected Console for review.

After approval, developers choose whether their app works in Search, Gemini or both. They can track traffic, latency and error rates, while retaining control over how their brand appears, including verified logos and accounts.

The model is already taking shape across consumer AI. Connected apps arrived in Gemini and Google Search earlier this year, and similar integrations exist in ChatGPT and Meta’s Muse. The pitch is that users can reach familiar services through an AI assistant instead of opening each service’s separate app.

Google says Gemini now has more than 50 connected apps. Its partners include Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton, alongside Google services such as Workplace, Photos, YouTube Music and Google Home.

Google says the apps already available in Gemini will begin appearing in Search over the next few weeks. It also named meditation app Calm as a new partner, coming soon to both products.

The missing distribution details

Google is positioning connected apps as a potential counterpart to search optimization: a way for businesses to become more visible as people use AI agents to interact with services. That analogy is plausible, but the announcement describes the plumbing more clearly than the audience it could deliver.

I think the more consequential question is whether being available inside Gemini or Search will bring meaningful customer traffic, not just another place to register an app. Google offers developers metrics after launch, but it has not said when the platform will expand beyond US developers who joined the waitlist.

That leaves the opportunity open-ended. The more connected services Google adds, the more useful its assistants could become; but until developers can see the reach and value of those integrations, the platform is a distribution bet without a disclosed timetable for broader access.