Gemini's New Connected Apps Explained: Who Actually Gets Them

Google spent its Made by Google event on phones, and slipped out the announcement that will change more people's day. On August 12, 2026, it announced a new slate of Connected Apps for Gemini -- 13 of them, including OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Zocdoc, Pandora, Angi and Otter.ai -- so Gemini can book, play and file things instead of describing how to. The catch is in Google's own fine print: the rollout runs "over the next few weeks," and almost every third-party app on the list is limited to the United States, in English, for adults.

Key Takeaways

• Thirteen new apps were announced on August 12, 2026, across work, going out, music, and home and health.
• Five are already live in Google's own requirements table: Wix, Zocdoc, OpenTable, Ticketmaster and iHeartRadio. The other eight were not listed on announcement day.
• You do not need a paid plan. Google's requirements table carries a Subscriptions column for each app, and no app in it names a required Google AI subscription.
• Your country is the real gate. Wix, Zocdoc and Ticketmaster are US only; OpenTable is UK and US only; iHeartRadio adds Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.
• Most third-party apps are 18 or over, English only, and personal Google Accounts only -- not work or school accounts.
• One setting silently switches the whole feature off. With Keep Activity off, Google says Connected Apps are unavailable on gemini.google.com, on iOS and on smart watches.
• Some connect themselves. Google says "some Connected Apps are designed to automatically work with Gemini," and you disconnect rather than connect them.
• Gemini already uses Search, Maps, Flights, Hotels and YouTube without you connecting anything -- and Connected Apps settings do not change that.

The 13 New Apps, and Whether You Can Use One Today

Five of the thirteen are usable now if you qualify; eight are still coming. The distinction is not in Google's blog post, which lists all thirteen together under "over the next few weeks." It is visible in Google's Connected Apps requirements table, a separate help page that carries an entry per app with its country, age, language and account rules. We read that table on announcement day.

"Not yet" means exactly that and nothing more: Google has published no requirements for those eight, which is what you would expect of something rolling out over the coming weeks. If one appears in your Connected Apps settings before it appears in the table, use it.

Is It Free, and Which Plan Do You Need?

Free, on every plan, as far as Google publishes. This is the question the announcement does not address at all, and the requirements table answers it structurally: it defines a Subscriptions field as "the required Google AI subscription, if any, to use the connected app," and then no app in the table fills it in. Checked on August 12, 2026, not one Connected App carries a subscription requirement.

There is one indirect cost worth knowing. Some apps are usable only in Gemini Spark, Google's agent mode, and Spark itself is a paid feature -- so those apps inherit Spark's gating rather than their own. Google also says custom apps you link yourself, via an app's own connection, are "only available to users with Gemini Spark access and within Spark tasks." Our guide to Gemini Spark covers which plans include it.

The Setting That Turns All of This Off

Keep Activity. It is the single least obvious thing on this page, and it is worth checking before you conclude the feature has not reached you. Google's Connected Apps help article states it plainly: "When Keep Activity is off, Connected Apps won't be available on gemini.google.com, iOS devices, or smart watches. On Android devices, only the Utilities, Phone, Messages, and WhatsApp apps will be available if the setting is off."

In other words, a privacy setting many people switch off on purpose removes almost the entire feature on iPhone and on the web, without telling you that is what it did.

Two more mechanics from the same article are worth having:

• You do not always have to connect anything. Google: "Some Connected Apps are designed to automatically work with Gemini." You disconnect those in Settings, then Connected Apps.
• To force a specific app, type the at sign followed by the app name in your prompt. If it is not connected and you are eligible, Gemini offers to connect it.
• Google Messages is excluded. "For now, Gemini can't use Connected Apps in Google Messages."

What Gemini Already Uses Without Asking

Five Google services, and no setting connects them. Google lists them: Search, Flights, Hotels, Maps and YouTube. It says Gemini "automatically uses public information" from these and that "Connected Apps settings don't change Gemini's use of this public information." It also draws the boundary: "Gemini won't access your personal information or content in these services without your permission."

The exception is the same setting again. Keep Activity must be on for the Flights, Hotels, Maps and YouTube half. Search works either way, "even if Keep Activity is off or you're signed out."

Do You Get It? The Honest Regional Picture

If you are outside the United States, mostly no -- and that has been true of Gemini's third-party apps for a while rather than being new today. Reading the whole requirements table rather than only the new rows makes the pattern obvious.

So the reader most affected by today's announcement is an American adult who books restaurants, buys tickets and sees a doctor. The reader least affected is anyone in the EU, and anyone under 18 anywhere.

Should You Care?

Care if you are in the US and already use the Gemini app. Open Settings, then Connected Apps, and look. OpenTable, Ticketmaster and Zocdoc are the three that turn a search into a completed booking, and they are the ones already documented.

Care if you are in the UK, but only for OpenTable. It is the single app on the new list Google has cleared beyond the US, which is why the announcement writes it as "OpenTable (UK)."

Check Keep Activity before you conclude anything. If Connected Apps look missing on your iPhone or on the web, that setting is the first thing to check, not the last.

Do not upgrade a plan for this. Nothing here requires a paid Google AI subscription. If you are weighing one anyway, our which AI chatbot should you pay for guide covers what the money actually buys, and the best free AI chatbot in 2026 covers what it does not.

Skip it entirely if you are in the EU. Nothing on the new list names a European country.

If the idea of an assistant that acts inside other apps is new to you, our plain-terms explainer on what an AI agent actually is is the two-minute version, and Gemini Live covers which of these apps work while you are talking rather than typing.

The bottom line: this is a real, useful expansion of what Gemini can finish rather than merely suggest, and Google buried the only part that decides whether it reaches you. Thirteen apps were announced; five are documented as available; and the fine print on nearly all of them says United States, English, 18 or over. Check Connected Apps in your settings, check Keep Activity is on, and do not pay anything for it.