Google's Connected Apps Let Your Business Show Up in Gemini and Search

Google launched a preview of its Connected Apps Platform on 28 October 2026, a single system that lets outside developers plug their apps directly into both the Gemini app and Google Search. Instead of building separate integrations, a business connects once and lets customers view data or complete actions right inside a Gemini or Search conversation.

What is Google's Connected Apps Platform?

Before this, a company that wanted its app reachable from inside Gemini had to build and maintain that integration closely with Google, one product at a time. The Connected Apps Platform standardises that work. A developer sets up a cloud hosted MCP server, using the open Model Context Protocol, or an Android AppFunctions integration for on device actions, then manages everything through a new self service hub called Google Connected Console. There, a business registers its app, tests it, and decides whether it goes live in Search, the Gemini app, or both, before Google reviews and publishes it.

The Connected Apps Platform gives developers the opportunity to build once and reach high-intent users across both Search and the Gemini app.from Chips Mistry and Mai Lowe, Group Product Managers, Google (Google blog, 28 October 2026)

What can businesses already do with it?

Once an app is live, the Connected Console lets the business keep control of its brand, including a verified logo and an authenticated account, and track real usage data such as traffic, latency and error rates rather than guessing how the integration is performing.

• More than 50 Connected Apps already run inside the Gemini app, from partners such as Adobe, Peloton, Experian and Localiza, covering productivity, fitness, credit and car rental tasks.
• A new Calm integration is rolling out across both Search and Gemini in the coming weeks.
• Google is bringing existing Gemini integrations to Search next, and will keep adding developers, markets and products over the following months.

How could your business use this?

Picture a clinic with its own booking system. Instead of asking a patient to open a separate app, a Connected App lets that patient check or move an appointment while chatting with Gemini. A retailer could let a shopper ask a product question inside Search's AI Mode and get an answer pulled straight from its own catalogue and stock levels, not a generic summary. A restaurant's reservation tool, a repair shop's job tracker, or a tuition centre's class schedule could all work the same way once registered. The common thread is that the customer never leaves the conversation they are already having to get something done.

Also today

• Mistral released the downloadable open weights for its one trillion parameter Large 4 model, reporting a 47 percent cut in tokens used per coding task compared with its earlier preview version (Mistral AI).
• Anthropic expanded its AI for Science programme to 20 partner foundations and research institutes, including the National Science Foundation, the Simons Foundation and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, giving them free Claude credits to distribute to scientists (AI News, 28 October 2026).

What to do this week

You do not need to build an MCP server yourself to benefit from this shift. Treat it as a signal: the booking page, order form or support ticket on your website is increasingly something a customer may try to reach from inside an AI chat rather than a browser tab, whether that is Gemini, Search, or the WhatsApp based tools many businesses already use. Start by checking whether your current booking or ordering system is simple enough to describe in a short script, since that is exactly the kind of task a connected AI tool needs to call reliably. If you want a structured way to turn your own systems into tools an AI can use, that hands on build work is covered in NextGen's AI Full-Stack Building for Business (Vibe Coding) programme.