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You heard it first at Next ‘24! We’re coming out with our in-product AI-assisted app creation with Gemini in AppSheet. Today, we are excited to share with you, our AppSheet community, that the rollout has begun!
What is it?
Using Gemini in AppSheet, Creators can get a jump on building apps and it’s a great tool for helping new AppSheet users get started creating their first app.
AI-assisted app creation takes an idea and turns it into an AppSheet solution. Just describe a business process in natural language, like “I manage a mailroom and I need to keep track of incoming packages and send notifications for people to pick them up” or “I want to be able to keep track of all sales from my homemade cookies.” You’ll get back a suggested data schema with tables and columns. From there, we'll create a working app for you, complete with basic views and actions.
Last year, we launched Gemini in AppSheet as a Chat app for Google Workspace customers. This year, we’re embedding the experience right inside the AppSheet surface so you won’t need Google Chat and licensed AppSheet creators will be able to use it, too.
You’ll find Gemini in AppSheet from the Create menu on your My Apps page in AppSheet.com under Create > App > Start with Gemini. Learn more about creating apps using Gemini in AppSheet.
When will it be available?
Some of you already have it! AI-assisted app creation will be available to accounts with paid AppSheet licenses, including those with AppSheet Core entitlements through their Workspace licenses. But this feature is being released in waves. The rollout started last week and will continue over the next few months as controls are made available for AppSheet admins to manage the use of Gemini in AppSheet. This means that you may not see the feature until the entire rollout is complete.
We’re happy we can share Gemini in AppSheet with more of the AppSheet community and can’t wait to see what you build with it!
-The Google AppSheet Team
Hi @goannsplain
One of the accounts I have has activated this great feature and I am trying it out.🤩
Please point out if my understanding is incorrect, but as of now, the app is being created on the first request only.
For example, here is the case.
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I am trying to create an SFA app and requested to create Account, Contact, Opportunity, and Activity tables.
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The app was suggested to create an app with the four requested tables. So far so good.
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However, I want a Subject column in Activity, so I selected Start Over and commented to have that item added.
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Then it suggested an app with only the Activity table remaining.
Thus, it appears that even if I want to modify only part of what was suggested, I need to request it again from the beginning.
If there is a way prepared at this stage to do Chat communication that would correct only a part of it, please let me know.🙏
Hi @goannsplain
Gemini in my environment in AppSheet was powerful!🤩
I used to have to adopt or reject the boiler template presented by the prompt, but now I can make additional changes to tables and columns.
Also, my native language is Japanese, and I was able to not only understand the Japanese prompts, but also specify Japanese in the template app (although this seems to require a little ingenuity in writing the prompts)!
I have a few wishes.
With the addition of columns, the creation of Ref items is Link to.
This seems to inherit the UI of AppSheet Database, but when App Creator develops an application, it is confusing if the terminology is not unified.
I would like to have it changed to Ref in this UI menu.
Demo data is included in the application to be created, but I would like to be able to add sample images here.
Currently, no matter what prompt is specified, demo data containing images is not created.
The current Start with an idea feature creates the following app. These will help citizen developers envision use cases as they develop their first app.
Thanks!
Hi @goannsplain
The prompt of the generator was confirmed to be recorded in Information->Description.
This is very good.😍
No need to bother to note what prompt was used to create it.
Hi @goannsplain
I have created several Gemini in AppSheet applications.
There are many advantages over Start with an idea.😃
However, I believe that sample images are still very important in the first stage of getting citizen developers to use it.
I have guided many citizen developers to AppSheet.
Citizen developers are very surprised and pleased when they see that Start with an idea creates a master table that includes sample images.
I am hopeful that similar functionality will be added to Gemini in AppSheet.
I don't know if it is feasible there, but I would like them to hear one idea.
I believe Google has Imagen as the very engine to generate the images.
Would it be possible to add images created by Imagen in Gemini in AppSheet?
However, I understand that it would be very costly to generate nearly 20 images each time an app is generated in Gemini in AppSheet.
Therefore, images created using Gemini in AppSheet are stored on the server as images available to everyone and tagged.
When an app is generated with a similar theme, the saved images are used, and only when a new app is generated with a new theme, new images are generated.
In this way, we believe it will be possible to generate sample images with Imagen while keeping the cost of generation low.
Also, for Google, the history of what images were created by citizen developer-generated apps would be valuable data.
MS's Image Creator picks up images created in the past as examples as Explore ideas.
It would be great to have such an image library ready and available in Gemini in AppSheet.
Thanks🤗
Hi @goannsplain
Immediately after creating an app in Gemini in AppSheet, a default folder is not created in Google Drive.
For citizen developers, you may be wondering if and where your app is actually created.
Also, if a citizen developer wants to create a new Google Sheet as an additional data source in addition to ASDB, the citizen developer will be confused if the folder listed in the default path does not exist.
Hi @goannsplain
I see that Gemini in AppSheet is not available to those under 18 years of age.
This may not be an option at this time, but is there any possibility of a relaxation?
I am interested in using Gemini in AppSheet because Google Workspace for Education Plus comes bundled with AppSheet Core, and I believe there are many students under 18 who would like to use Gemini in AppSheet.
I also think that Gemini in AppSheet would be a valuable tool for them to learn basic data models.
Is this due to the fact that the Gemini API prohibits use by those under 18 years of age in the first place?
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms
@Kirk_Masden
@Koichi_Tsuji
Hi @goannsplain
I know it is still being tweaked, but I will share my feedback using Gemini in AppSheet along with common use cases.
I created an app with the following text.
I want to create an application to manage tasks for the entire team.
Two tables will be used, one for tasks and one for users.
Create a User table with only an Email column, and create a Task Owner column in the Task table to reference the User table.
Please prepare Slice and a View using it to provide My Page for users.It is a simple app to manage tasks with a team.
In this case, we often use Email with respect to the Key of the user table.
However, I have never been able to create the app I expect because the current Gemini in AppSheet always tries to create an ID column.
I would like Gemini to be a little more flexible regarding Key settings.
Also, I have never been able to set up Slice even when I have instructed them to create it.
Slice creation is the first part that is difficult for citizen developers to understand.
I think it would be a powerful help to citizen developers if Gemini could suggest sample Slice use cases.
In addition, since the slice is not created with the email as the key, existing slice creation assistance functions do not suggest that the task owner is the user's own email.
Hi @goannsplain
To begin with, since ASDB is specified as the data source by default in Gemini in AppSheet, the ID row may be almost unnecessary.
I would prefer that an app be created that simply specifies the Row ID as the Key.
On top of that, if we want to set something other than Row ID as Key, it would be nice to be able to specify it at the prompt.
