AI-powered coding tools have become so popular over the past few months that almost every major tech company is either using one or making its own. Makers of these so-called “vibe-coding” tools are a hot commodity at the moment, with startups like Lovable and Cursor fending off buyers and investors keen to tap a hot trend.
Google’s now become the latest to hop on this bandwagon: The company is testing a vibe-coding tool called Opal, available to users in the U.S. through Google Labs, which the company uses as a base to experiment with new tech.
Opal lets you create mini web apps using text prompts, or you can remix existing apps available in a gallery. All users have to do is enter a description of the app they want to make, and the tool will then use different Google models to do so.
Once the app is ready, you can navigate into an editor panel to see the visual workflow of input, output, and generation steps. You can click on each workflow step to look at the prompt that dictates the process, and edit it if you need to. You also can manually add steps from Opal’s toolbar.
Opal also lets users publish their new app on the web and share the link with others to test out using their own Google accounts.
Google’s AI studio already lets developers build apps using prompts, but Opal’s visual workflow indicates the company likely wants to target a wider audience.
The company joins a long list of competitors, including Canva, Figma, and Replit, that are making tools to encourage non-technical people to create prototypes of apps without having to do any coding.
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