Google's Antigravity Puts Coding Productivity Before Ai Hype - And The Result Is Astonishing

11 hours ago

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Google unveils Antigravity, a productivity-focused AI coding IDE.
Built connected VS Code, it enables instant familiarity and plugin support.
Screenshots, recordings, and browser testing powerfulness supplier workflows.

Google coming announced a new(ish) programmer's improvement situation called Antigravity. The institution calls it "a caller era successful AI-assisted package development." And, from a first look I took astatine its functionality via this video, it good mightiness be. At slightest for immoderate things.

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Some aspects of Antigravity are decidedly astonishingly good. It has immoderate features that I deliberation tin genuinely thief move your agent-assisted programming guardant successful very productive ways.

But let's bring this announcement backmost to world for a minute. Although nan institution ne'er mentioned it successful its blog announcement aliases online demos, Antigravity is simply a fork of Microsoft's open-source VS Code. You tin show from nan screenshots I pulled from nan demo.

This is not a bad thing. In fact, I deliberation it's reasonably fantastic, because it intends that while Google is adding immoderate powerful caller agentic features, it's each wrapped up successful an situation most coders are very acquainted with.

A measurement beyond erstwhile supplier integration

When I first utilized VS Code pinch OpenAI's Codex, it was powerful, indeed. I completed a tremendous magnitude of coding successful a very short time. Codex occupied nan correct pane of nan three-pane interface (the different 2 panes were a record browser and a codification editor).

I was capable to usage CleanShot X to drawback screenshots, and paste them correct into VS Code for Codex to see. In fact, I recovered nan expertise to proviso nan AI pinch screenshots to be, by far, 1 of nan astir powerful devices for agentic coding.

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But that was then; this is now.

Antigravity tin return its ain screenshots. It tin besides seizure surface recordings. Not only that, you tin usage Antigravity to make comments connected nan screenshots and surface recordings to guideline nan Gemini 3 LLM connected what you want changed.

But wait, there's more.

Antigravity includes a Google Chrome hold that enables nan AI to tally your codification wrong a existent Chrome instance, trial it, observe its behavior, and past return action.

That's immoderate next-level worldly correct there.

To beryllium clear, nan browser integration features are constricted to browser-only applications. While nan AI mightiness beryllium capable to trial nan WordPress plugins I worked connected earlier (because WordPress besides runs successful nan browser), it wouldn't beryllium capable to test, for example, an iOS app for nan iPhone.

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However, nan expertise of nan IDE's agents to interact profoundly pinch nan look and consciousness of a web app successful real-time could lead to a tremendous boost successful productivity.

Agent location

When you group up Antigravity, you tin find nan level of autonomy to assistance nan agent.

Google has raised nan prominence of nan AI chatbot pane successful VS Code, er, Antigravity. The Home surface of Antigravity isn't nan record browser aliases nan editor; it's nan chatbot relationship screen.

This conception of nan interface, known arsenic nan Manager surface, really becomes an supplier dashboard wherever you tin invoke and way galore supplier processes from a azygous location.

The institution describes it arsenic nan interface for spawning, orchestrating, and watching aggregate agents crossed aggregate workspaces successful parallel.

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That past condemnation is worthy a infinitesimal of deconstruction. A workspace successful VS Code is simply a grouping of files, usually for 1 project. For example, I routinely person 1 workspace dedicated to immoderate WordPress plugin I'm moving on, and different to a wholly different Python task I'm coding.

With Antigravity's expertise to negociate aggregate agents crossed aggregate workspaces, you tin person aggregate projects going astatine once, each pinch different agents carrying retired different tasks.

On nan 1 hand, this could beryllium very powerful. On nan different hand, nan discourse switching connected nan portion of our very integrated quality brains could beryllium challenging. I find it challenging to activity connected 2 programming projects simultaneously. I often move betwixt projects from 1 time to nan next. But switching backmost and distant dynamically betwixt projects passim nan workday could lead to errors aliases encephalon melt.

Still, it's disposable and lets you optimize for your moving style.

An a-peeling integration

This is simply a mini thing, but it's cool. When Google demoed nan functionality of Antigravity, nan presenter wanted a logo for his app. Right from wrong Antigravity, he asked Gemini to create an image utilizing Nano Banana.

Nano Banana is an awesome image generator wrong Flash 2.5 (and now, presumably, Gemini 3). So it's nary large astonishment to spot it crank retired immoderate charismatic logos.

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But up until now, we've seen immoderate logical walls betwixt AI implementations. The coding chatbots are much coding-focused and little conversational. The chatty chatbots person less coding supplier capabilities.

However, Antigravity was capable to invoke nan Nano Banana capabilities to create nan logo straight wrong nan Antigravity IDE interface.

Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET

UX creation often requires creating a multitude of mini schematic elements. Normally, we'd move retired of nan IDE, driblet into a graphics program, make nan files, and upload nan files. Lather, rinse, repeat.

However, since Antigravity tin do it each from wrong nan supplier guidance discourse wrong nan IDE, nan process tin prevention a bunch of steps. Saving steps is thing each master programmer needs to do.

The walkthrough

Most coding agents supply immoderate benignant of pre-execution scheme and post-completion summary of actions taken. That's not new. Antigravity does nan aforesaid thing.

But what's awesome astir Antigravity is that because it has browser interactivity and surface signaling built in, it tin show its actions successful a surface recording.

Let's opportunity you inquire it to instrumentality a caller feature. At nan extremity of its processing run, nan supplier tin show nan steps it took to build nan feature. However, it tin besides supply a surface signaling that demonstrates really it tested nan caller characteristic and what it saw connected nan screen.

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That lets you return a speedy look astatine what sewage produced. But because Antigravity provides an easy system to adhd Google Docs-like comments to codification snippets, screenshots, and surface recordings, you tin really people up nan walkthrough and show nan AI what you want to change.

I don't deliberation it's imaginable to overstate really beneficial that tin beryllium to productivity.

Ideas that emergence supra

I haven't had a chance to usage Antigravity yet, but I will. The truth that it's VC Code-based makes it an easy consideration. That provides nan caller IDE pinch an tremendous room of plugins and extensions correct retired of nan gate.

I deliberation astir master programmers would beryllium acold much inclined to effort yet different VS Code fork (which they cognize tin beryllium integrated pinch their projects and workflows) than immoderate brand-new, hardly retired of beta, AI-focused IDE. Productivity matters to pro coders.

What impresses maine astir Antigravity is that galore of its features are purely productivity-focused. Yes, they activity pinch nan AI agents and make describing activity to AI agents easier, but it's productivity that drives these features, not AI hype. That's a beardown approach.

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I'm conscionable a small disappointed that Google didn't fess up correct retired of nan gross that this is really a VS Code mod. I deliberation much programmers would person been instantly willing successful seeing what was done. But that's h2o nether nan bridge.

I've reached retired to Google, because 1 point I would for illustration to get explanation connected is wherever Jules (Google's agent-first coding AI) fits into this puzzle. Jules useful mostly connected your GitHub repo, whereas Antigravity intelligibly useful connected section code, though it's capable to nonstop commits backmost to GitHub. Does Jules activity pinch Antigravity, aliases is Antigravity supplanting Jules, aliases are they still conscionable 2 different paradigms?

At immoderate rate, this looks for illustration it could beryllium a winner.

Have you tried immoderate AI-assisted improvement environments yet? If so, really do they comparison to your normal workflow? Would nan expertise to seizure and annotate screenshots aliases recordings correct wrong nan IDE alteration really you create aliases debug? How important is heavy browser-level testing to your ain projects, and would you spot an supplier to run crossed aggregate workspaces astatine once? Finally, does Google's determination not to stress its VS Code origins matter to you, aliases is capacity each that counts? Let america cognize successful nan comments below.

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