The AI coding boom is now coming directly for Android app development. On Tuesday at Google IO 2026, the company announced new native Android app creation capabilities in its web-based Google AI Studio, shrinking a process that takes weeks of setup and coding down to minutes.
The company also said that consumers will be able to use Gemini AI to find the apps they need, both on the Play Store and the web, expanding opportunities for developers to have their apps discovered.
Google says the new capabilities could make sense for anyone from a seasoned developer looking to prototype a new app quickly to a first-time creator.
By offering the ability to essentially vibe-code Android apps via web-based tools, Google is ramping up the competition with other AI-powered development tools, like Cursor, Replit, Lovable, Claude Code, and others, while also opening up Android development to a new type of user: a non-technical creator. The news also represents an expansion of Google’s earlier addition of AI-powered coding with Gemini in its desktop version of Android Studio.
The apps are built with the Kotlin programming language using Google’s Jetpack Compose toolkit and with support integration with hardware sensors like GPS, Bluetooth, and NFC, the company says. However, the resulting creations, for now, are only meant to be used personally, as publishing for family and friends is still on the roadmap.
The company suggests the technology could be used for the creation of personal utilities and simple social apps, hardware-enabled experiences, or AI-powered experiences.
For now, would-be app developers can use the embedded Android Emulator directly in a web browser to preview and interact with the app as it’s being built. Users can then install the app on their Android phone over a USB cable connected to their computer, using the integrated Android Debug Bridge (adb).
For those looking to take their project further, AI Studio can automatically create the app record, package the bundle, and upload it to an internal testing track in Google Play Console for developers. This allows users to continue to iterate on their app while updating on their devices along the way.
Those who want to take the next steps to publishing the app more publicly can hand off this version of the project to Android Studio by downloading a zip file and exporting it directly to GitHub. In time, Google plans to allow creators to publish their apps for use by family and friends and will add support for Firebase integrations (Firestore, Firebase Auth, Firebase App Check, and other tooling).
In doing so, the company is imagining an Android app ecosystem where users find apps from among their own network of friends, not just the Play Store.
However, for the latter, Google is infusing AI into the experience here, too.
A new “Ask Play” AI-powered overlay will allow users to discover new apps by having natural conversations with AI within the Play Store.
Perhaps more importantly, apps will begin to be surfaced with users’ conversations with Google’s Gemini virtual assistant, exposing developers’ apps to millions of users. This will roll out in the weeks ahead across Gemini on the web and on Android. Later this year, Gemini will also surface over 450,000 movies and TV shows, plus where to livestream sports, which can directly link users from their queries to a developer’s Android app with the content in question.
While Google previewed a number of Android-related announcements last week, it held back on sharing the news of the native Android app development until Tuesday’s start of its annual developer conference, Google I/O. That suggests the company believes this is bigger news and more closely tied to its idea of putting AI to real-world use, as was the larger theme of this year’s event, where AI was spread across Google products, from workspace productivity apps to AI tools, search, mobile apps, and more.
Catch up on the rest of Google IO 2026’s big news
Google Search as you know it is over
Google updates Gemini app to take on ChatGPT and Claude
Google introduces Gemini Spark, a 24/7 agent assistant with Gmail integration
How to use Google’s new information agents
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