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Google opens a Connected Apps Platform for any developer to plug into Gemini and AI Mode Search

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The short version

Google's new Connected Apps Platform lets developers submit apps through a self-serve console instead of a direct partnership deal, with more than 50 apps already live across Search and Gemini, per Google's October 28, 2026 announcement.

Google opens a Connected Apps Platform for any developer to plug into Gemini and AI Mode Search

Google launched a public preview of a Connected Apps Platform on October 28, 2026. Any developer can now submit an app for the Gemini app or AI Mode in Search through a self-serve console, instead of negotiating a direct partnership with Google first, per Google's announcement.

What

Developers connect by standing up a cloud-hosted MCP server, or an Android MCP server using the AppFunctions APIs. They register and test the app in the new Google Connected Console, then submit it for review, according to Google. Before an app goes live, the developer chooses whether it appears in Search's AI Mode, the Gemini app, or both. Once approved, developers can track traffic and error rates in the console, and they keep control of their brand identity, including verified logos and authenticated accounts, Google said. More than 50 connected apps already run across Search and Gemini combined, per Google's post. Partners such as Adobe and Experian are live in Gemini now, alongside Localiza and Peloton, and are due to reach Search within weeks. The meditation app Calm is a new partner launching on both surfaces. The platform remains in public preview, open to U.S. developers through a waitlist, TechCrunch reported.

Small app makers no longer need a Google partnership deal to get listed

Until now, the apps that showed up inside a Gemini conversation or an AI Mode search result, Instacart, Canva, YouTube Music, Yahoo Fantasy Football, got there through direct deals with Google. The Connected Console changes that. Any developer with a working MCP server can apply and ship, after testing the integration in the console, without a business-development relationship first. TechCrunch compared the shift to how search-engine optimization let any website compete for rankings, framing Connected Apps as an early distribution channel on what the outlet called the agentic web. For an AI-tool builder, a working MCP integration is now a possible distribution channel inside two of Google's highest-traffic surfaces, beyond its original job of connecting to chat clients.

Context and reactions

This extends Google's consumer-facing Connected Apps feature from earlier in 2026 inside Gemini and Search, and it lands alongside comparable connected-app efforts at OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta's Muse, per TechCrunch's reporting. The company has not disclosed how many developers applied through the new console in its first days, nor set a public target for how many partner apps it wants listed.

What to watch next

No date has been set for opening the waitlist beyond U.S. developers, or for expanding past the roughly 50 apps already live, per Google's announcement. Whether MCP becomes the common connector format across the three labs, rather than three incompatible integration paths, will determine how much duplicate engineering app makers face chasing this kind of placement.

Sources