Google Launches Firebase Studio: AI-Powered App Development Platform Sparks Debate

Firebase Studio promises app prototypes from AI prompts

Big G reckons this agentic AI speeds up or simplifies coding. Developers who've used it aren't so sure Cloud Next Google on Wednesday announced Firebase Studio, a product pitched as "a cloud-based agentic development environment" - in other words, a browser-based coding workspace that includes AI to help developers to prototype and build apps without writing every line of code themselves. Tech companies are using the term "agentic AI" a lot right now, and it's tempting to suggest, in the spirit of Arthur C. Clarke, that sufficiently advanced automated applications of AI are indistinguishable from agentic AI. A Google spokesperson offered the following definition: "That means using agents to complete tasks throughout the software development lifecycle. Also, Firebase Studio can be used to build apps that have native functionality and control flow driven by generative AI." That accords with other definitions of the term we've seen. Nvidia's definition is: "Agentic AI uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems." Atlassian thinks agentic AI means bots automatically reading a ticket that requests a code change, writing a proposal on how to implement that change for humans to approve, then writing the code. Microsoft reckons agents can trawl through logs of possible phishing attempts and prepare reports that help security pros understand the real threats. Us vultures here see it as software that talks to other software as well as users, using generative AI to make its decisions and form outputs. Whatever agentic AI is or does, Firebase Studio's implementation of it - at least in its preview state - isn't impressing everyone because it is not quite baked, much like the apps it helps produce. "The AI part of the app is basically useless," wrote UK-based developer Oscar Molnar, in a Hacker News post. "After two hours of 'vibe coding' a chess clock Flutter app, I got basically nothing in the end. It broke more and more [with] each message. I tried fixing stuff myself but it would mess it up again. [I] would not recommend anyone to use it." The term "vibe coding" was introduced by AI notable Andrej Karpathy, who described it as a hands-off, prompt-driven way to build software by outsourcing most of the work to large language models. "I'm building a project or web app, but it's not really coding - I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works," Karpathy said in a social media post in February. If you're a professional programmer like Karpathy or Molnar, that may work out. But less experienced developers are likely to have a problem recognizing or fixing bugs in AI-generated apps. The Register asked Molnar whether he believes Firebase Studio could generate a production-quality app that people would pay to use. "It's hard to judge because there is a vast difference between products that can have paying customers," Molnar said. "So if the end goal is selling something made with it then I'm sure that at some point you can get there. The issue is maintaining it later on because you have not written the code yourself and the AI is not in a position right now to understand it either (based on what I have played with). "One example of this is last night when I was trying to write this chess clock app, it got into loops of messing it up and correcting it and messing it up again at least ten times over the course of a couple of hours. If I wasn't a professional, I could not have continued ... and the product would have failed." In a Firebase blog post, Google developer relations engineer Rody Davis and product marketing manager Kelvin Boateng walk through the creation of "a functional Next.js web app" in a matter of seconds. We note that other AI-powered IDEs and application builders exist, such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, Lovable, and Replit. The Googlers' demo shows Firebase Studio receiving this prompt: And once the "Prototype with AI" button gets pressed, Firebase Studio tries to create the described app. The AI churns out some TypeScript code, and moments later, an apparently functional, if not all that useful, app is created. It only takes a few more clicks to generate a Gemini API key needed for the app to gain image recognition capabilities. Moments later, the app is ready to be hosted at Firebase App Hosting (unavailable at the time of writing), which, as the Chocolate Factory observes, requires a Google Cloud account it can bill. Software development is complex and expensive, so plenty of other strategies have been suggested to make it more efficient. The Register often hears of low-code development tools; forking an existing open source app that can be customized; building on top of someone's framework boilerplate; or buying and rebranding commodity code using an app broker. All of these scenarios are likely to require additional development and/or maintenance work. Can AI dev tools like Firebase Studio make those approaches less appealing? As Google likes to say about new technology releases, it's still early days. If you mean something where you tell it the end product and it goes off and does that for you and then pings you back to check the finished product, then no, it isn't agentic at all Asked whether Google's description of an agentic development environment means anything or is just buzzwords, Molnar said it depends on how you define "agentic." "If you mean something where you tell it the end product and it goes off and does that for you and then pings you back to check the finished product, then no, it isn't agentic at all," he explained. "If you mean something that can search through your files and change some lines of code, or suggest terminal commands that you then have to approve, then yes, it is agentic, but then it's no different from Cursor, which has been doing this for over a year. "So I would say it's not a lie, but it's clearly overhyped, which is the modus operandi of AI companies, sadly." ®

Google unveils Firebase Studio for AI app development

Cloud-based development environment leverages tools such as Project IDX, Genkit, and Gemini in Firebase to build, test, and run AI applications. Google is previewing Firebase Studio, a cloud-based agentic development environment designed to build, test, deploy, and run AI applications. Introduced April 9, Firebase Studio fuses tools such as the Project IDX cloud IDE, the Genkit framework for AI applications, and Gemini in Firebase, an AI-powered collaborative assistant, into a unified, agentic experience, Google said. The platform offers prototyping capabilities, coding workspaces, and flexible deployment options, allowing developers to move faster and build the next generation of innovative applications quicker, the company said. Developers can use an app prototyping agent to generate functional web app prototypes, starting with Next.js, using natural language prompts, images, or drawings. Firebase Studio wires up Genkit and provides a Gemini API key to enable AI features to work out-of-the-box.

Google takes on Cursor with Firebase Studio, its AI builder for vibe coding

Google has quietly launched Firebase Studio, which is a cloud-based AI-powered integrated development environment that lets you build full-fledged apps using prompts. Google's Firebase Studio comes at an interesting time when Cursor AI is storming the "vibe coding" trend. Cursor AI, reportedly valued at $10 billion, is an AI-powered integrated development environment that integrates AI features directly into the coding environment, so you can vibe code your app without programming knowledge. Google has been competing head to head with OpenAI and Claude with Gemini, but it hasn't had a product to ride the vibe coding trend -- until now. Firebase Studio is a solid cloud-based tool for creating full-stack apps using prompts According to documents seen by BleepingComputer, Firebase Studio supports many programming languages and frameworks, including React, Next.js, Angular, Vue.js, Flutter, Android, Node.js, Java, Python Flask, and more. You can also use natural language and images to describe your app idea, and the AI will help you prototype it in seconds. You don't have to write the entire code yourself. The idea is to follow your vibe and code it using AI. In our tests, BleepingComputer was able to create a working prototype of a full-fledged website by just describing the idea. Since Firebase Studio is also a cloud-based IDE, you can modify the code and add your own improvements without using any other IDE, such as Visual Studio.

Google introduces Firebase Studio, an end-to-end platform that builds custom apps in-browser, in minutes

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Google has heated up the app-building space, today rolling out a generative AI-powered end-to-end app platform that allows users to create custom apps in minutes. Today at Google Cloud Next, the tech giant introduced the full-stack AI workspace Firebase Studio. Devs and non-devs can use the cloud-based, Gemini-powered agentic development platform to build, launch, iterate on and monitor mobile and web apps, APIs, backends and frontends directly from their browsers. It is now available in preview to all users (you must have a Google account). As of this posting, Firebase Studio was experiencing "exceptionally high demand," so VentureBeat has not yet had the opportunity to test it out. However, early reaction has been largely positive. "Google Just COOKED AGAIN! Firebase Studio beats Lovable and Bolt?" wrote one YouTube user offering up a tutorial video. "This could be a GAME CHANGER for developers who want to quickly prototype and build production-ready applications with AI assistance." "Feels like Cursor AI meets v0, but free. ?," another posted to X. Yet another user reacted: "? It's like lovable+cursor+replit+bolt+windsurf all in one testing catalog." How users can create apps in minutes with Firebase Studio Firebase Studio combines Google's coding tools Genkit and Project IDX with specialized AI agents and Gemini assistance. It is built on the popular Code OSS project, making it look and feel familiar to many. Users just need to open their browser to build an app in minutes, importing from existing repositories such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or a local machine. The platform supports languages including Java, .NET, Node.js, Go and Python, and frameworks like Next.js, React, Angular, Vue.js, Android, Flutter and others. Users can choose from more than 60 pre-built templates or use a prototyping agent that helps design an app (including UI, AI flows and API schema) through natural language, screenshots, mockups, drawing tools, screenshots, images and mockups -- without the need for coding. The app can then be directly deployed to Firebase App Hosting, Cloud Run, or custom infrastructure. Apps can be monitored in a Firebase console and refined and expanded in a coding workspace with a single click. Apps right can be previewed in a browser, and Firebase Studio features built-in runtime services and tools for emulation, testing, refactoring, debugging and code documentation. Google says the platform greatly simplifies coding workflows. Gemini helps users write code and documentation, fix bugs, manage and resolve dependencies, write and run unit tests, and work with Docker containers, among other tasks. Users can customize and evolve different aspects of their apps, including model inference, agents, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), UX, business logic and others. Google is also now granting early access to Gemini Code Assist agents in Firebase Studio for those in the Google Developer Program. For instance, a migration agent can help move code; a testing agent can simulate user interactions or run adversarial scenarios against AI models to identify and fix potentially dangerous outputs; and a code documentation agent can allow users to talk to code. During preview, Firebase Studio is available with three workspaces for regular users, while Google Developer Program members can use up to 30 workspaces. Gemini Code Assist agents are on the waitlist.

Google's Firebase Studio lets you prototype apps in minutes -- no code needed

Google is giving its mobile and web app development platform, Firebase, a vibe coding makeover -- transforming it from a dev tool into a DIY AI app builder. It's in a preview phase right now but any individual Google user can give it a go. Just as chatbots like ChatGPT generate text or images from your prompts, Firebase Studio endeavors to generate app prototypes. For businesses, the idea is to majorly speed up the prototyping process, but the reason "vibe coding" is getting attention right now is that non-techie individuals can use these tools to build personal apps as well. Recommended Videos Cursor AI is one of the most popular apps for this use at the moment, gaining 360,000 paying subscribers and $200 million in revenue in around 12 months. Kevin Roose over at The New York Times, for example, seems to be having lots of fun vibe coding apps that help him pack his son's school lunch or decide if something can fit in his car's trunk. With Firebase Studio's new features, it looks like Google wants in on the action. You can use a template that's close to your idea or start from scratch by simply typing in what you want. Firebase Studio will then send you back a plan describing the kind of features it will include, what the color scheme and layout will be, and what the app is called. You can tweak all of these details and click "prototype" to start building. Now, I am no app developer, so what happened next looked a little crazy to me -- just lines of code cascading down the screen while the AI model presumably did all of its generating. When it was done, the wall of code was replaced by a little web app prototype -- I chose an app that would turn images of anime food into recipes, so the app was waiting for me to upload an image. At this point, Firebase Studio prompts you for a "Gemini API key," so in true vibe coding style, I just clicked the "Generate API key" button to see what would happen. It looked like it worked, but when I uploaded my image and clicked "Identify ingredients," the app ran into another issue. The AI offered to try and fix the issue for me -- but honestly, I was already done with this little experiment. To me, vibe coding is just clicking buttons without any real idea what they'll do, and that isn't very fun. But if you do want to try it, the idea is to basically keep asking the AI to fix things, keep asking it to make changes, and keep testing out the prototype on the left-hand side until you get what you want. The only thing now is to wait and see if Google can attract some vibe coders or if Firebase's user base will stay mostly professional.

Devs Rejoice, Google's New Firebase Studio Helps Build Agentic AI Apps

Google's popular mobile app development platform finally adds Gemini-powered capabilities. At the Google Cloud Next Conference 2025 in Las Vegas, the company announced a new Firebase Studio, which aims to refine its mobile development platform, Firebase, into an end-to-end platform to accelerate the complete application lifecycle. Firebase Studio is a cloud-based agentic development environment powered by Gemini. It includes everything a developer needs to create and publish production-ready AI apps quickly. The new offering aims to mix the capabilities of Gemini, Genkit, and Project IDX with Firebase services to provide a native agentic experience. Developers can choose from over 60 pre-built templates or use the App Prototyping agent, which assists in designing the app, including the UI, API schema, and AI flows. The app can be opened inside a Firebase Studio coding workspace with a single click and no additional setup. This should allow refining the architecture and tweaking features to prepare for deployment. Genkit now adds early support for Python and expanded support for Go, making it easier to build through Firebase Studio using the templates. The coding workspaces will also let developers debug, test (using the app testing agent), document the mode, enhance codebases from repositories like GitHub, and customise all aspects of the app. Gemini Code Assist agents are also available in early access from Firebase Studio. Examples include the migration agent, which helps migrate code between versions of Java, and an AI testing agent to run adversarial tests against AI models to find and fix potentially harmful outputs. The code documentation agent will chat with a Wiki-style knowledge base about the codebase. The Firebase Studio is available to everyone in the preview. Three coding workspaces are free during the preview phase, and members of the Google Developer Program get up to 30 workspaces.