Google has opened a preview of a Connected Apps Platform that lets developers build a single integration and offer it inside both Google Search and the Gemini app. The company announced the preview on 28 October, alongside new partner apps from Adobe, Calm and Peloton among others.
Connected Apps are the services people link to Google’s AI so it can act for them, such as adding groceries to a shopping cart or saving a playlist. Until now Google has added them partner by partner. The platform is an attempt to open that up to many more developers, using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard many AI companies now use to let assistants call outside tools.
One integration, two Google products
According to Google’s post, developers connect their service in one of two ways: through a cloud-hosted MCP server, or through “Android MCP” using the AppFunctions APIs. Google’s developer documentation describes AppFunctions as Android’s MCP solution, a path that lets an app’s features run locally on the phone rather than on a remote server, built with the Jetpack AppFunctions SDK. The documentation also points to MCP Apps for richer interactive screens, and to an OAuth 2.1 guide for letting the Gemini app act on a user’s account securely.
Users link an app once, the documentation says, and can then reach their data and take actions in that service from supported Google products.
A console for testing, review and traffic
Developers register and manage their apps in a new Google Connected Console. There they connect their MCP endpoint, set up testers, version their app and send it for review. Before review, they choose whether it goes live in Search, the Gemini app or both. Once it is live, Google says developers can track traffic, latency and error rates, and keep control of their brand, including verified logos and authenticated accounts.
Access is opening in phases. Google says it will add more developers, markets and Google products “over the coming months”, and developers can apply to join the preview. The company did not say which countries come first, and its post does not mention any fees or revenue terms.
The Connected Apps policy sets some of the rules. It bans third-party advertising inside integrations and hidden or undocumented features, and it prohibits apps that keep returning errors, timing out or failing to authenticate.
More than 50 apps already live
Google says it has launched more than 50 Connected Apps across Search and Gemini, covering areas from productivity and event ticketing to health and fitness. Integrations from Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton are live in Gemini and will come to Search “in the coming weeks”. Calm will launch on both.
The move builds on a July launch, when Google began rolling out connected apps in AI Mode in Search in the US, starting with Instacart, Canva and YouTube Music. Gemini had already been linking to Google’s own services, and it now reaches into Gmail and Calendar on Android Auto too.
Google wants its assistant to be where app work starts
The platform is a bid for position. If people ask Gemini or Search to book, buy or plan, the app that does the work becomes a tool called by Google’s assistant rather than a destination people open themselves. A shared console and a standard protocol lower the cost for developers to accept that arrangement, and MCP means much of the work can be reused for other assistants that support the same standard, as with the connectors used by agents such as Grok.
Business software makers are facing the same pull from the other direction. Oracle plans to let staff run its Fusion apps from ChatGPT, and ServiceNow has plugged its workflows into Gemini Enterprise.
The open questions are commercial. Google’s post does not say how apps will be ranked or chosen when several could answer the same request, or whether money will change hands. The ban on third-party advertising inside integrations suggests Google wants to keep that side of the experience in its own hands. Developers deciding whether to join should also weigh the review process, which gives Google the final say over what goes live.
What comes next
Google says more markets and products will follow over the coming months. The next visible step is the partner apps from Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton reaching Search in the coming weeks.
Sources
- The Keyword (Google), “Build and manage Connected Apps in one place”, Chips Mistry and Mai Lowe, 28 October 2026
- Google for Developers, Connected Apps Platform
- Google for Developers, Create and manage Connected Apps in Google Connected Console
- Google for Developers, Connected Apps policy
- The Keyword (Google), “Connect more of your apps to Search”, 16 July 2026
Related stories
- Gemini for Mac Tests a Hidden “Full Access” Setting
- Grok Agents, Part 2: Tools, Connectors and Your Own Data
- Gemini Can Now Use Your Gmail and Calendar on Android Auto, Except in the UK
- ServiceNow Plugs Its Industry Workflows Into Gemini Enterprise
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