Google opens Connected Apps Platform so developers can add apps to Gemini and Search

Google has launched the Connected Apps Platform, a developer program that lets businesses and developers submit their own apps for use inside Gemini and Google Search's AI experiences. The platform is in public preview, available in beta to developers in the US who sign up for a waitlist. Google did not say when it would become more broadly available.

To participate, developers integrate with a cloud-hosted MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, or with Android MCP using the AppFunctions APIs. They then use the Google Connected Console to register, test and submit the app. Developers can decide whether the app appears in Search, the Gemini app, or both.

Once an app is live, developers can monitor traffic, latency and error rates, and keep control of brand elements such as verified logos and authenticated accounts.

Gemini already offers more than 50 connected apps, from partners including Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton, plus Google's own services such as Photos and YouTube Music. Those apps will come to Search over the next few weeks. Search currently has fewer, including Instacart, Canva, YouTube Music and Yahoo Fantasy Football. Calm is a new partner and will soon launch on both.

Connected apps let users link a service and act on it from within an AI interface, such as designing a flyer in Canva or building a playlist in YouTube Music. Other consumer AI products, including ChatGPT and Meta's Muse, have taken their own approaches. The underlying premise is that people may shift from opening individual apps to using their favorite services through an AI provider.

That shift only works if the selection is broad enough to be worth using. Opening the platform to any business or developer is Google's route to that breadth. TechCrunch compares the move to early search engine optimization, suggesting that listing in these AI surfaces could become a first step for businesses seeking visibility on the agentic web. That is an interpretation rather than something Google has claimed.

The near-term marker is the arrival of Gemini's connected apps in Search over the next few weeks, which will show how closely the two experiences line up.

Open questions include when the platform leaves the US-only waitlist beta and how many developers outside Google's launch partners submit apps.