Google’s AI Mode now lets you link and interact with select apps
TechCrunch Aisha Malik
Google's AI Mode can now hook into apps like Instacart, Canva, and YouTube to actually do things, not just answer questions. It's Google's move to keep search sticky as ChatGPT and Claude push the same app-integration game.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Aisha Malik — read the original for the full story.
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Google quietly turned AI Mode into something closer to an assistant this week, letting it reach into apps you already use instead of just spitting out search results. Starting Thursday, U.S. users can link Instacart, Canva, and YouTube to their AI Mode sessions, and the search giant says more app partners are coming.
The pitch is straightforward: less bouncing between tabs, more finishing the job right where you started. Plan a barbecue, ask AI Mode for a grocery list, then push those items straight into your Instacart cart without retyping a single item. Need a flyer for that same barbecue? Ask AI Mode and it'll pull Canva templates on the spot. Building a party playlist? Save it directly to YouTube Music instead of copying song titles by hand.
This isn't really a standalone feature so much as a continuation of what Google started at I/O earlier this year, when it let the Gemini app connect to services like OpenTable and Spark to speed up task completion. AI Mode getting the same treatment suggests Google wants its search product, not just its chatbot app, to feel like a place where things actually get done. And that matters, because AI Mode has been quietly stacking capabilities since its early 2025 debut — checking local store inventory, letting people browse the web side-by-side with AI answers, and tapping into Gmail and Google Photos through what Google calls Personal Intelligence.
None of this happens in a vacuum. OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude already support third-party app connections, and Google is clearly not interested in ceding that ground. Turning search into a task-completion engine also gives Google a reason to keep users inside AI Mode longer, which, conveniently, is exactly where it wants eyeballs as traditional search habits shift toward conversational tools.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is Google doing what Google always does when threatened: bolt commerce onto search and call it innovation. The Instacart integration is the tell here — helpful, sure, but also a checkout funnel dressed up as convenience, and I'd bet the app list grows fastest wherever Google can take a cut.
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