subinternal Talk to us

ResearchAgents

Google opens Gemini and AI Mode to outside apps

Any developer can now ask to bring an app into Gemini and Search, through one console and an MCP server. What a model reads to decide when to use you is your server’s own description of itself.

An engraving of a glass and iron railway hall where many separate tracks curve in from every side to one ornate signal box at its center, its levers and dials joined by wires to every line.

What did Google launch?

A preview of the Connected Apps Platform, opened on October 28, 2026. It gives app developers one place to bring their apps into Gemini and Google Search. In Google’s words, it lets developers “bring their capabilities directly into Gemini and Search.” Access opens in phases over the coming months, and developers sign up for the preview to take part.1

For a person, it works like this: they link an app once, and from then on they can reach their data in it and take actions in it from Google’s products, with the app acting for them through OAuth 2.1.2

How does an app get in?

By one of two paths. The first is a remote MCP server, hosted in the cloud, which reaches the Gemini app and Search on the web, Android and iOS. MCP is the open standard for joining AI assistants to other software, and Claude and ChatGPT connect through it too. The second is Android MCP, built on Android’s AppFunctions APIs, where the app’s tools run on the person’s own phone.1, 2

A remote MCP serverHosted at a public HTTPS addressAndroid MCPAppFunctions, run on the phone itselfGoogle Connected ConsoleRegisterTestChoose whereSubmit for reviewWatch it runSearch, the Gemini app or both; then traffic, latency and error ratesThe Gemini appWeb, Android and iOSSearchWhere AI Mode first linked apps in JulyEach person links an app once, and it acts for them through OAuth 2.1.
How an app gets in, from Google’s developer pages, October 2026. A remote MCP server reaches both places on web, Android and iOS.

Either way, the work happens in the Google Connected Console. A developer registers the app and its tools, tests them, chooses Search, the Gemini app or both, and submits for review. Once it is live, the console shows its traffic, latency and error rates.1, 2

What does Google ask of an MCP server?

Mostly that it explain itself well. Google’s guide asks for “clear server instructions describing your domain and capabilities,” because models use them to decide when to hand a task to the server. Every tool should carry annotations: a read-only hint on tools that only read, a destructive hint on tools that change something, and operations that need a person’s confirmation can be marked in the console. Arguments should have explicit types, and each parameter a detailed description, so the model calls each tool correctly.3

The server sits at a public HTTPS address. It may also send its own interface, which Gemini draws in a sandboxed frame inside the chat. Google suggests testing locally with the MCP Inspector, then live in Gemini’s Developer Mode before submitting.3

What does the policy rule out?

Advertising, gaming the model, and apps that don’t work. Partners “must not serve any third party advertising content” inside a Connected App. An app’s description must be honest and accurate, and the policy bans broad or deceptive capability descriptions meant to sway the model into picking one app over another. Apps should exchange only the data their current features need. And apps that keep returning errors, crashing, timing out or failing to authenticate are prohibited.4

The rule on descriptions matters most. The words a model reads to choose an app are now policed like listing copy: they have to say plainly what the app does, and nothing more.

Who can use it today?

For people, the apps already in. Google says more than 50 Connected Apps have launched across Search and Gemini. Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton are live in Gemini and come to Search in the coming weeks, and Calm is new in both.1 9to5Google also names Dropbox, Instacart, OpenTable and Ticketmaster among the apps already there.5 AI Mode first let people in the US link apps on July 16, 2026, with Instacart and Canva among the first.6

For developers, whoever the preview lets in. Google is adding developers, markets and products in phases and has not given dates for a wider opening.1

How many people could see a connected app?

Alphabet says the Gemini app has passed one billion monthly active users, a figure it gave with its third quarter results on October 28, 2026.7 It said earlier in 2026 that AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users.8 These are Alphabet’s own figures, and the two audiences overlap, so they should never be added together. Neither says how many people link an app, or how often Gemini chooses one.

What should a company do now?

Build one MCP server, and build it well. This is our judgment, not Google’s. A company that wants its service used by assistants no longer needs a separate integration for each one: a well-built remote MCP server can be offered to Claude, to ChatGPT, and now to Gemini and Search through Google’s review. Being agent-first means that server, done once and accepted in more than one place.

Treat its instructions and tool descriptions as your new listing copy. They are what a model reads to decide when to use you, and Google’s policy bans gaming them, so write them the way you would want a careful person to describe your service: what it does, for whom, and where it stops. Mark every tool as a read or a write, and ask for confirmation before anything that spends money or changes a record. And keep the server fast and reliable, because an app that keeps failing is removed.

This is work we do. We build agents and MCP servers around a company’s own systems, and we set up the assistants its people use, Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini. Our own tool, clickd, checks how an assistant reads a site, which is the other half of being found. If you want to talk through yours, get in touch.

What isn’t known yet?

A good deal. The platform is in preview, so its terms, review rules and console may change before a wider opening, and Google has given no dates for one. Google has not said when Gemini or Search offers a linked app to a person who hasn’t asked for it, or how it chooses between two apps that do the same thing. And there are no figures yet on how many people link apps at all. Everything here was read from Google’s pages and the press in October 2026 and is cited below.

References

  1. Google, “Build and manage Connected Apps in one place.” October 2026. blog.google
  2. Google for Developers, “Connected Apps Platform.” Read October 2026. developers.google.com
  3. Google for Developers, “Connected Apps Platform MCP server developer guide.” Read October 2026. developers.google.com
  4. Google for Developers, “Connected Apps Platform policy.” Read October 2026. developers.google.com
  5. 9to5Google, “Google adding more Connected Apps to Gemini & Search with new dev platform.” October 2026. 9to5google.com
  6. TechCrunch, “Google’s AI Mode now lets you link and interact with select apps.” July 2026. techcrunch.com
  7. Google, “Q3 2026 earnings call: Remarks from our CEO.” October 2026. blog.google
  8. PPC Land, “Gemini app gains 350m users in a year to pass 1bn, Alphabet says.” October 2026. ppc.land