Artificial intelligence is making software development available to almost anyone. If there's an app you want that doesn't exist yet, you can build it with zero coding ability thanks to Google's various AI-powered development tools. Gemini 3 Pro is Google's best model for vibe coding and multimodal understanding, and it's rolling out across all the brand's development platforms to make it easier for anyone to create web apps.
I've tried Gemini-infused platforms like Google AI Studio and Google Antigravity, but both of those are technical and better suited for people who know what they're doing. For everyone else, there's a Google Labs experiment called Opal that makes building AI mini apps with natural-language prompts simple.
Opal makes building apps simple
It's as easy as making a shortcut or automation
Google Opal is for software development what Weebly and Wix were for website building in the 2010s. When website builders like Google Sites and Wix became mainstream, anyone could suddenly build a website using simple "building blocks" without needing to know the intricacies of HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. Now, we're experiencing something similar with web app development and Google Opal. The platform uses "chains" that connect actions to create "workflows," which become visual web apps when put together.
The no-code interface features three essential types of building blocks: user input, generate, output. The visual editor allows users to pick from these building blocks and string actions together in chains with natural language prompts. There's also a chatbot at the bottom of the Opal editor that accepts any kind of natural language prompt and can create workflows and edits on your behalf. While you can build workflows yourself, it's not necessary.
For my test app, I wanted Opal to create a music recommendation tool that suggested new songs I might like from a list of my favorite songs. Here's the prompt I used to create this Opal mini app:
Create a mini app that uses web data to suggest new songs a user might like based on a list of their favorite songs. Include the song title, artist, and cover art for the recommendations. Provide a link to the song's entry on the Genius website if available. Use a minimalist design similar to the Apple Music app.
After thinking, Opal created a workflow with four actions chained together. The first one accepts user input of liked songs, the middle two actions generate song recommendations and track details, and the final action creates the output. In the end, the mini apps mostly worked, with a few caveats. Buttons were completely broken in the apps, slightly limiting their usefulness.
When to use Opal instead of Gemini
Opal shines with recurring tasks
Opal appears to be more limited in its web search capabilities and API integrations than Google AI Studio. I frequently ran into roadblocks when trying to build mini apps with Opal. In one instance, Opal refused to generate cover art images for song recommendations because it wasn't allowed to create realistic photos of people. When I tweaked the mini app to use web images of the album art instead, the app failed to run entirely.
In fact, I experienced issues with Google's own sample mini apps. In the Generated Playlist mini app developed by Google, the hyperlink buttons for YouTube song listings didn't work. This mimicked the failure I experienced in my music recommendations mini-app, as Opal successfully found Genius links for the recommendations, but couldn't make them into working buttons.
It's worth emphasizing that Opal is marketed as a tool for AI mini apps, and I think I know why. For complex apps that require web or API access, using another development platform is ideal. Opal is best used as an alternative to large language model (LLM) chatbots like Gemini for recurring tasks.
Let's say you want to generate a daily weather image. Instead of entering a Gemini prompt every day to generate an image, you can build an Opal mini app that completes the actions required with the press of a button. Maybe you want AI to identify the top news stories of the day, or draft client emails. Opal apps can handle these generative tasks with ease in a user-friendly wrapper that's less of a hassle than Gemini.
I now use this offline AI assistant instead of cloud chatbots
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This one feature separates Opal from the rest
Publishing and sharing your mini apps is free and easy
In my testing, Opal isn't as capable as other Google developer tools, like AI Studio or Antigravity. I've successfully built web and Android apps using those platforms, whereas using Opal to create mini apps was more difficult. As a no-code platform, Google Opal doesn't have a robust debugging tool built in, which means it's harder to isolate problems with your mini apps and resolve them.
To be fair, Google Opal is an experiment, and could get better over time. It also has one feature that makes it a better option for the average user than any other Google development tool — free web publishing and sharing. While apps made with Google AI Studio can only be hosted and shared by paying for usage-based Google Cloud credits, AI mini apps from Opal are shareable for free. It works the same way as a Google Drive link, allowing others to access and "remix" your Opal apps on the web.
Opal is worth trying out, even if you only use Google's pre-made mini apps to get a feel for the magic yourself. It might just be your gateway into more advanced tools like AI Studio and Antigravity.