Google launches Disco to turn open tabs into custom apps
Google introduced Disco, a Gemini-powered AI experiment for the Chrome browser, on Thursday. This tool enables users to transform open browser tabs into custom web applications through GenTabs, which proactively suggest interactive apps based on browsing content to assist with related tasks.
Disco allows the creation of GenTabs, described by Google as a feature that generates interactive web applications tailored to the user’s current activities. These applications emerge from natural language prompts, helping users build tools directly within their browsing environment. The process leverages the content across multiple open tabs, integrating it seamlessly into functional apps without requiring separate software installations.
For educational purposes, GenTabs can propose constructing a visualization web app when a user studies a specific subject. This app organizes and displays information to aid comprehension of core principles, drawing directly from the materials in the open tabs. Such functionality extends the utility of browsing beyond passive reading, enabling dynamic interaction with researched content.
In practical scenarios, GenTabs supports creating a meal plan application from a collection of online recipes scattered across tabs. Users input prompts, and the system compiles ingredients, steps, and nutritional details into a structured planner. Similarly, while researching travel destinations, GenTabs can generate a trip-planning app that aggregates itineraries, bookings, and local information from various sources, streamlining the organization of vacation details.
The generation of these custom apps occurs instantaneously using Gemini 3, which analyzes the information present in the user’s browser tabs and incorporates elements from their Gemini chat history. This integration ensures the apps reflect both immediate context and prior interactions, producing relevant and personalized results. Once built, users refine the applications through additional natural language commands, allowing iterative improvements such as adding features or adjusting layouts without technical expertise.
Google emphasizes that all generative elements within GenTabs maintain links to their original source pages. This design preserves transparency and verifiability, enabling users to trace app components back to the underlying web content. Such connectivity upholds the integrity of the browsing experience while enhancing it with AI capabilities.
Video: Google
Google’s approach with Disco aligns with broader efforts to embed Gemini deeper into the Chrome browser, fostering AI integration in everyday web use. Unlike standalone AI browsers such as Perplexity’s Comet or ChatGPT Atlas, this method augments the existing Chrome platform. Gemini already functions within Chrome to answer queries about the current webpage, but GenTabs expands this by considering the entire browsing session across multiple tabs, encompassing research, learning, or other activities.
Availability begins with a limited rollout to testers via Google Labs. Participants in this phase provide feedback on the user experience, which Google uses to refine the tool. The company indicates that concepts developed through Disco could integrate into larger Google products in the future. GenTabs represents the initial feature under testing, with Google planning additional functionalities for Disco over time.
Access to Disco requires joining a waitlist for the app download, which launches first on macOS. This phased introduction allows Google to gather insights from early users before broader deployment.