As AI agents reshape the web, Google opens Gemini and Search to more apps
TechCrunch Sarah Perez
Google opened Gemini and Search to more third-party apps. It’s a bid to make AI the front door for everyday services, not just another chatbot.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Sarah Perez — read the original for the full story.
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Google is broadening the way businesses can plug into its AI products, rolling out a Connected Apps Platform for Search and Gemini. The idea is simple enough: let people connect third-party services, then ask Google’s AI to do something useful with them, whether that’s making a flyer in Canva or building a playlist in YouTube Music.
That sounds a lot like the direction other consumer AI products have been nudging toward. ChatGPT and Meta’s Muse have explored similar territory. But Google is going further on distribution. Instead of waiting for a few big partners, it wants developers and businesses to submit their own connected apps and watch how they perform inside Google’s products.
The platform is in beta for developers in the U.S. To get in, they’ll use a cloud-hosted MCP server or Android MCP through the AppFunctions APIs, then register, test and submit their app in Google Connected Console. They can choose whether an app shows up in Search, the Gemini app, or both. Once live, they can monitor traffic, latency and error rates, while keeping control of brand details like verified logos and authenticated accounts.
Google already has more than 50 connected apps in Gemini, including ones from Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton, plus its own services such as Photos, YouTube Music and Google Home. Those apps are headed to Search over the next few weeks. Search currently has fewer integrations, including Instacart, Canva, YouTube Music and Yahoo Fantasy Football, and Calm is joining the effort soon as well. The new platform is in public preview for U.S. developers who join the waitlist, and Google hasn’t said when it will open more widely.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the right move, because AI products without a healthy app ecosystem are just expensive autocomplete. Google knows the old web trick too: if you want power, you need distribution, and if you want distribution, you need other people’s apps to do the boring work. The only real question is whether developers want another gatekeeper wearing an AI halo.
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