Google's Connected Apps Platform: should a CPG brand build an app for Gemini and Search?

Every few months a platform opens a new door and the question lands on a brand team's desk: should we be in there? This week's door is Google's.

On October 28 Google announced the preview of its Connected Apps Platform, "a unified way for more app developers to bring their capabilities directly into Gemini and Search." Connected Apps already let people link services like Canva, YouTube Music or Instacart and ask the assistant to act through them. The new part is that any developer can now apply to build one, and the same app can work in both Search and the Gemini app.

This guide explains what Google launched, how it works, which kinds of companies it suits, and what we think most CPG brands should do about it this quarter.

What Google launched

The announcement, written by product leads for Search and the Gemini app, makes four points.

• Build once, two surfaces. The platform "gives developers the opportunity to build once and reach high-intent users across both Search and the Gemini app." Before review, a developer chooses Search, the Gemini app or both.
• MCP under the hood. Developers "integrate with a cloud-hosted MCP server or Android MCP using the AppFunctions APIs." MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the same standard many AI tools now use to call outside services.
• A console to manage it. Google Connected Console handles registration, testing and submission. Once an app is live, developers can track traffic, latency and error rates and control brand identity, including verified logos and authenticated accounts.
• Phased access. Google is "opening access in phases." TechCrunch reports the preview is open to US developers on a waitlist, with no date for wider availability.

Google says it has launched more than 50 Connected Apps between Search and Gemini, in areas from productivity and event ticketing to health and fitness. Partners including Adobe, Experian, Localiza and Peloton are live in Gemini and will reach Search in the coming weeks, and Calm is launching on both. The blog post opens with "From ordering groceries to making playlists," which tells you shopping tasks are already part of the picture. TechCrunch lists Instacart among the apps already featured in Search.

How it works, in plain terms

The Connected Console guide lays out the developer path. You connect to your MCP server, choose which Google products to appear in, set up public-facing details for your app, add testers, then version and publish. The prerequisites include MCP server endpoints, IP allowlisting, domain verification and metadata assets such as logos.

For a non-technical reader, the short version is this. Your company runs a service that can answer requests like "what's in my next box" or "reorder my usual." You describe those actions in a standard format. Google's assistant, when a user who has connected your app asks for something relevant, calls your service and shows the result. The user stays inside Search or Gemini.

That is real engineering work. You need an MCP server that is reliable, secure and authenticated against user accounts, plus someone to watch the error rates the console reports. It is not a marketing project.

Why Google is doing this now

The timing makes sense against Google's own numbers. On Alphabet's Q3 earnings call the same day, Sundar Pichai said Google is bringing agentic features to Search and to the "billion users on the Gemini app," and that people are using Gemini "to do things, including complex, multi-step agentic queries." Connected Apps are one way those things get done: Google's assistant calling someone else's service.

Other platforms are doing versions of the same thing. ChatGPT and Meta's Muse have their own app integrations, as TechCrunch notes. Amazon is pushing the opposite approach: keep the shopping inside its own assistant. Amazon said on October 29 that Alexa for Shopping was used by more than 400 million customers in the last 12 months.

Table: Assistant reach figures reported this week

Assistant	Figure	Definition used	Source
Gemini app	1 billion users	"our billion users on the Gemini app"	Alphabet Q3 call, Oct 28
Alexa for Shopping	400 million+ customers	used in the last 12 months	Amazon Q3 release, Oct 29
Google Connected Apps	50+ apps	launched between Search and Gemini	Google blog, Oct 28

Sources: Alphabet Q3 2026 transcript, Amazon Q3 2026 results and Google's Connected Apps announcement. The figures use different definitions and are not comparable to each other.

Who it suits, and who it doesn't

Look at the partner list. Adobe, Peloton, Calm, Experian, a car rental company, Instacart. Every one is a service people log into and use again and again. They have accounts, histories and actions worth automating: book a class, check a credit score, start a meditation, order groceries.

Most CPG brands are not that. A shopper buys your granola through a grocery app, a retailer's site, Amazon or your own store. The action they want an assistant to take, "add the oat granola I like to my order," runs through whoever holds the cart. That is the retailer or the delivery app. It is why Instacart is a Connected App and individual food brands are not.

So the honest answer for most brands is: you will be in Connected Apps, but through your partners' apps, not your own. Whether the assistant picks your product when it orders through Instacart or another partner depends on the product data that partner holds.

There are exceptions. A CPG brand could reasonably consider its own Connected App if it has:

• A real subscription or membership service. If you run your own subscription (coffee, supplements, pet food), "skip my next box" or "add a bag to my next order" are exactly the kind of actions Connected Apps exist for.
• A tool people use, not just a catalog. A recipe planner, a skin-type finder, a pet-food portion calculator. If people already return to it, an assistant could call it.
• Account-based customer service. Order status, returns, refills, at a scale where automating them is worth engineering time.

If none of those describe you, building an app now would be a solution looking for a problem.

What to do instead, this quarter

1. Find out which of your sales partners are Connected Apps. Look at the Connected Apps help pages Google links from its announcement for Search and Gemini. If a retailer or delivery app you sell through is listed, that is where your products can be ordered by the assistant.
2. Check your product data at those partners. Size, count, flavor, dietary claims and price should match your own site. An assistant ordering through a partner app will pick from what that partner shows. Tip 30 explains why listings beyond Amazon matter.
3. Keep Merchant Center clean. Google's own shopping surfaces still run on it, and Tip 16 covers why it matters for AI results. We also argued this week that organic product data is the floor as ads fill in around AI Mode answers.
4. Decide your stance on agents buying from your store. If you sell direct, agents may reach your store through other routes. Tip 33 walks through that decision.
5. If you do have a repeat-use service, join the waitlist. Joining costs nothing and shows you the requirements early. Treat the build as a product decision with an owner, not a side project.

What we will watch

Three things would change this advice.

First, if Google adds Connected Apps for brand-run stores through commerce platforms, the cost of entry for a direct-to-consumer brand drops sharply. Shopify has already moved toward agent access this fall, as we covered in our Shopify Fall '26 Edition checklist, and a platform-level integration would put individual stores within reach without custom engineering.

Second, if Google starts showing Connected Apps in shopping answers by default rather than only to users who connected them, being one becomes a visibility question, not just a convenience.

Third, the metrics. Google says developers can see traffic, latency and errors in the console. If early partners begin sharing what that traffic looks like, brands will have a real basis for the build decision.

Meanwhile, the work most brands can do now is the same work that matters for every assistant: make sure the facts about your products are accurate, consistent and readable everywhere they appear, and check what assistants actually say. Some teams run those checks by hand; others use tools such as SearchPanel from XENA Intelligence, which show the answers assistants give about each product.

The bottom line

Google has opened a door for apps that do things inside Search and Gemini. For most CPG brands, the door that matters is the one your retailers and delivery partners walk through. Make sure your products look right on the other side of it, and build your own app only when you have a service people already come back to.