Google Previews a Platform for Outside Apps in Gemini and Search

On October 28, Google announced a preview of its Connected Apps Platform for Gemini and Search. Run a SaaS product? Your customers may soon use it without visiting your site.

It lets more developers bring their apps into Google’s AI, but it’s a limited preview. Google says it is “opening access in phases.”

How it works

Connected apps let people use an outside service inside Google’s AI, for jobs from ordering groceries to making playlists.

In Search, TechCrunch’s report on the launch lists Instacart, Canva, YouTube Music and Yahoo Fantasy Football among the apps already there.

Google’s announcement on its blog sets out the route for developers:

• connect your service through a cloud-hosted MCP server, or Android MCP
• register, test and submit your app in the Google Connected Console
• choose whether it goes live in Search, the Gemini app, or both
• after launch, track your traffic, latency and error rates

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the open standard that Google’s developer documentation uses to connect tools and authorized data across applicable Google products.

So if you’ve already built an MCP server for another assistant, you’re closer than you think.

Still, you’d need to register and pass Google’s review.

Google’s developer documentation for Connected Apps includes an OAuth 2.1 guide for the remote server, so your users link your service once and Gemini acts on their behalf.

Who can join

Can you sign up today? Only if you’re in the US.

TechCrunch says the preview is open to US developers who sign up for the waitlist, but Google gave no date for wider access.

Google says it has launched more than 50 connected apps between Search and Gemini. Here are the ones it names:

• Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton: live in Gemini, due in Search in the coming weeks
• Calm: Google says it will launch an integration across both Search and Gemini

Why it matters

Connected apps let users link your service once, then take actions in it from Gemini or Search. After launch, you can track its traffic, latency and error rates.

It cuts both ways. My read: a booking tool, a design app or a finance service could pick up users who never see its homepage, but you’d lose the visit, the upsell page and some of the brand moment.

Then there’s reach. Search Engine Roundtable points out that people have to add your app to their personalized Search settings first. So building one doesn’t guarantee users.

So what should you do first? Start small:

• If people already ask Google to book, quote, design or check something you sell, sign up for the waitlist now
• If you run an MCP server, test it in the Google Connected Console
• If you don’t, expose your two or three most common customer tasks first

Common Questions

What is Google’s Connected Apps Platform?

It’s a preview program that lets developers bring their apps into the Gemini app and Google Search. You connect your service through a cloud-hosted MCP server or Android MCP, then register, test and submit your app in the Google Connected Console.

Who can use the Connected Apps Platform preview?

The preview is open to US developers who sign up for the waitlist. Google says it will add more developers, markets and Google products over the coming months, but it hasn’t given a date for when you’ll be able to join from elsewhere.

Will a connected app show up for every Google searcher?

No. People have to add your app to their personalized Search settings first, so you still need to give them a good reason to connect it, the same way you’d give them a reason to install a browser extension.