Google announced Thursday that AI Mode now lets users link and interact with Instacart, Canva, and YouTube directly within the conversational search experience.
Users can complete tasks like adding groceries to a shopping cart or saving playlists without leaving AI Mode.
The rollout is live in the U.S., with more app integrations expected soon, as Google seeks to compete with ChatGPT and Claude on task-completion capabilities.
What happened
Google announced Thursday that AI Mode—its conversational search experience—now allows users to connect and interact with select apps including Instacart, Canva, and YouTube directly within the interface. Users can perform tasks like adding grocery items to an Instacart cart, browsing Canva design templates, or saving playlists to YouTube Music.
Why it matters
The update moves AI Mode beyond answering questions toward completing real tasks across apps users rely on daily, helping Google compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, both of which already support app integrations. For users in the U.S., this reduces friction between planning and action—you can research and execute in one place.
What to watch
The rollout is live in the U.S. now, with Google stating it is working with partners and plans to launch support for more apps soon. This builds on a similar capability Google launched earlier this year at Google I/O, which already supported Canva, OpenTable, Spark, and Instacart on the Gemini app.
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Google's move to embed app integrations directly into AI Mode represents a strategic response to competitive pressure from OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which have already built similar task-completion features into their AI assistants. By allowing users to research, plan, and execute—all within a single conversational interface—Google is reducing the friction that typically requires switching between multiple applications. The initial lineup of Instacart, Canva, and YouTube reflects high-utility everyday tasks: shopping, design work, and entertainment curation.
This announcement is not entirely new territory for Google; the company had already introduced comparable integrations in the Gemini app at Google I/O earlier this year. However, extending these capabilities to AI Mode—Google's broader conversational search experience—signals an effort to make task completion feel native rather than siloed. The body notes that this follows a series of incremental improvements Google has made to AI Mode since its early 2025 launch, including inventory checking at nearby stores and the ability to explore the web alongside AI responses while maintaining search context. Earlier this year, Google also added "Personal Intelligence," which taps into users' Gmail and Google Photos for more personalized responses.
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