Your app could help customers inside Gemini and Search

A useful service can meet people where they ask

When someone needs help, they may start by asking an AI assistant rather than opening an app. That raises a useful question for anyone planning a product: which part of your service would be helpful in that conversation?

On October 28, Google announced a preview of its Connected Apps Platform. It gives developers one place to build and manage connections that bring an app's capabilities into Search, the Gemini app, or both. Builders choose the intended destination and submit the app for review.

Access is opening in phases, with more developers and markets planned over the coming months. This is an opportunity to explore. It does not mean every app can appear everywhere today, or that a connection will guarantee new customers.

Read the announcement: Google: Build and manage Connected Apps in one place.

Start with a question your customers already ask

Imagine you are planning a tool that lets customers check the progress of a request. A useful connection might let an authorised customer ask for that update through an assistant, without making them repeat the details in another place.

That is a possible product idea, not a result we have tested with this preview. The answer still needs to come from the right record and be available only to the right person. A customer should understand which service is answering and what it can do.

You can prepare this part before choosing any technology. Write the customer's question, the information needed to answer it, and an example of a useful reply. Notice where the app should stop and ask the person to confirm a change.

Sketch the conversation before building the connection

Use made-up information to show a builder what you mean. Keep the first task narrow enough to explain in a few sentences.

1. Write one question a customer regularly asks.
2. Show the reply or action that would genuinely help.
3. List what the person must be allowed to see or change.
4. Plan a clear handover to your app when more information or approval is needed.

Build around value you can explain

Google's developer guide describes testing, registration, and review before publication. Those steps are part of the project, alongside the screens and connection itself. Ask your builder to check current access and requirements before putting a launch date in the plan.

The preparation is useful even if you do not join this preview. A clear customer task helps you learn what an AI connection should do, or explain the work you want built. Focus on making that task easier. A new place to reach customers becomes more valuable when the service behind it already helps them.