As AI agents reshape the web, Google opens Gemini and Search to more apps

Google launched its Connected Apps Platform, letting businesses and developers submit their own apps to work inside Gemini and Google Search. Connected apps let users link services like Canva or YouTube Music and take actions without leaving Google's AI.

The preview is in beta for US developers who join a waitlist. Developers integrate via a cloud-hosted MCP server or Android MCP through the AppFunctions APIs, then register, test, and submit in the Google Connected Console, choosing Search, the Gemini app, or both. Once live, they can track traffic, latency, and error rates.

This is the agentic web's distribution layer starting to take shape, and Google wants to own the storefront. The bet, shared by ChatGPT and Meta's Muse, is that people will increasingly use services through their preferred AI rather than opening individual apps. If that's right, being callable inside Gemini and Search becomes the new version of ranking on page one.

There's a lot to like for builders. Google is building on MCP, an open protocol, rather than inventing a proprietary interface from scratch, and it's giving developers real operational telemetry plus control over verified logos and authenticated accounts. Lower friction for small developers to show up where users already are is a genuinely good outcome.

The downside is the familiar one. Whoever controls the assistant controls which app gets invoked. In classic search, a business could at least see where it ranked. In an agent conversation, the choice between two competing services happens behind the answer, and the user may never know there was a choice. Combine that with Google's newly global ads in AI answers, and it's fair to ask how paid placement and app selection will interact. Google hasn't said.

We'd also note the scale advantage: more than 50 connected apps already live in Gemini, from partners like Adobe, Experian, and Peloton, alongside Google's own services, and those come to Search over the next few weeks. Opening the doors is good. How fairly the agent picks among the guests is the part we'll be judging.

Connected apps debuted in Gemini and Search earlier this year. Search currently has fewer integrations, including Instacart, Canva, YouTube Music, and Yahoo Fantasy Football. Google named Calm as a new partner launching on both Gemini and Search. Google did not say when the platform will open more broadly.