What is Opal? Google Joins Vibe-Coding Wave with AI Tool that Builds Apps from Simple Prompts
X
Opal supports the growing idea of "vibe-coding," which lets users build apps based on the feel or functionality of an idea and does not require any knowledge of coding. Users enter a prompt, and Google's AI model transforms it into a functioning web app. The tool comes with a visual editor that displays how inputs, outputs, and steps are linked.
The app interface is designed for flexibility. Prompts are editable, and users can add new steps with the help of a toolbar. Once the app is developed, it can be shared online. Others can try it using their Google accounts. Even people without coding backgrounds can build and share working apps in minutes.
Opal also has a gallery where users can browse and remix other people's apps. This enhances the interactivity and the creativity in the platform, and beginners would have a comfortable start, and professionals would gain some interesting ideas and inspirations.
With Opal, Google joins others like Canva, Figma, and Replit, platforms that are trying to remove the programming from app making. The aim is to lower barriers to technology and broaden the population of people able to build apps.
Opal is unique in the way it uses visuals to demonstrate the logic of the app and is much easier to work with than standard coding tools. The move is designed to accommodate a wider range of users, from students to small business owners and creative freelancers.
Google's bet on vibe-coding with Opal is part of a larger battle to be the leader in AI innovation. The company already provides developers with a number of other AI tools, yet Opal's visual flow and ease of use set it apart. As testing continues, it is clear that Opal has the potential to make coding more fun, faster, and friendlier. That could transform how apps are constructed down the road — less lines of code, more lines of creativity.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
16 minutes ago
- Straits Times
AI investments in Singapore over the last 12 months
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox (From left) Grab chief technology officer Suthen Thomas, Grab chief executive Anthony Tan, DPM Gan Kim Yong, then Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat and Grab chief operating officer Alex Hungate at the launch of Grab's AI centre of excellence in May. SINGAPORE - Some of the world's biggest tech giants and multinational corporations have established artificial intelligence (AI) centres of excellence in Singapore, citing the country's business-friendly conditions. These centres aim to spur AI adoption among enterprises, nurture talent and advance the development of AI tools. Below are the notable firms that have launched AI centres in Singapore in the last two years. 1. NUS, Google – August 2025 National University of Singapore and Google announce plans to set up a joint research and innovation centre. The collaboration includes an AI talent development programme and a Google-supported professorship to promote faculty leadership in AI-related fields. 2. Microsoft – July 2025 Microsoft opens its Microsoft Research Asia lab in Singapore , its first in South-east Asia. The Singapore lab builds on Microsoft Research Asia's five-year collaboration agreement with NUS to support AI research and nurture computing talent in the region. 3. Alibaba Cloud – July 2025 Alibaba Cloud opens its AI innovation hub in Singapore, which will support more than 5,000 businesses and 100,000 developers globally. Alibaba is working with local universities such as Nanyang Technological University and Singapore University of Social Sciences to develop AI solutions and nurture tech talent. 4. BDx Data Centres and Anyon Technologies – July 2025 Data centre firm BDx and quantum computing provider Anyon Technologies jointly launch South-east Asia's hybrid quantum AI hub in Singapore. The hub will allow enterprises to explore quantum-enhanced AI applications, and it aligns with Singapore's Green Plan 2030 by incorporating sustainable infrastructure. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Govt forms 5 new committees to look at longer-term economic strategies; report due in mid-2026 Singapore Ong Beng Seng to be sentenced on Aug 15, prosecution does not object to fine due to his poor health Singapore All recruits at BMTC will be trained to fly drones and counter them: Chan Chun Sing Singapore Pritam Singh had hoped WP would 'tip one or two more constituencies' at GE2025 Singapore SIA flight bound for Seoul returns to Singapore due to technical issues Singapore Eu Yan Sang warns of counterfeits of its health supplements being sold online Singapore Electric car-sharing firm BlueSG to wind down current operations on Aug 8 Singapore Woman, 26, hit by car after dashing across street near Orchard Road 5. Tata Consultancy Services – July 2025 The IT services and consulting firm launches a new innovation centre in Singapore to allow the firm's customers and partners – including 60 SMEs and start-ups – to develop AI solutions for business challenges. It will also employ 50 fresh graduates in roles such as data science and cyber security to support the centre's operations. 6. Kyndryl – June 2025 IT infrastructure provider Kyndryl launches its Asean AI Innovation Lab in Singapore , which will employ approximately 50 local AI specialists, including data scientists, data engineers and AI developers. It aims to develop AI solutions for enterprises with advanced security features across South-east Asia. 7. Grab – May 2025 Grab launches its Grab AI Centre of Excellence at Grab HQ@one-north. Supported by Digital Industry Singapore, the centre aims to accelerate AI-driven solutions in South-east Asia. It will create 50 high value jobs in the product, engineering, data science and analytics fields. 8. BHP – May 2025 Mining giant BHP opens its AI Lab in Singapore to accelerate AI adoption in the mining and resources sector. The launch is in partnership with AI Singapore and supported by Enterprise Singapore, marking a milestone in Singapore's role as a metals and minerals trading hub. 9. PwC – April 2025 Professional services firm PwC establishes its AI & Digital Innovation Centre in Singapore with a US$4 million commitment. The hub, supported by the Economic Development Board (EDB), aims to leverage AI to scale solutions for PwC's clients and power AI adoption for close to 4,000 people across the firm. 10. Oracle – March 2025 Oracle launches its AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore , which will provide organisations access to training on the latest cloud and AI technologies. It will also support experimentation and implementation of AI solutions. Its partners include Accenture, Deloitte, Digital Realty, NCS, NTUC LearningHub, PwC, and ST Engineering. 11. Accenture – November 2024 Accenture establishes its AI Refinery Engineering Hub in Singapore, supported by EDB. The hub is an extension of Accenture's Centre for Advanced AI in Singapore and is part of its global USD $3 billion investment to advance AI adoption. 12. Prudential - November 2024 Financial services firm Prudential launches its Prudential AI Lab in Singapore to accelerate the adoption of AI across the organisation. Since its soft launch in August, Prudential has received over 100 AI use cases from across 24 markets in Asia and Africa. The organisation has also partnered with institutes of higher learning such as National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic to nurture the next generation of AI talent.
Business Times
10 hours ago
- Business Times
AI search pushing an already weakened media ecosystem to the brink
[NEW YORK] Generative artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT are cutting into traditional online search traffic, depriving news sites of visitors and impacting the advertising revenue they desperately need, in a crushing blow to an industry already fighting for survival. 'The next three or four years will be incredibly challenging for publishers everywhere. No one is immune from the AI summaries storm gathering on the horizon,' warned Matt Karolian, vice-president of research and development at Boston Globe Media. 'Publishers need to build their own shelters or risk being swept away.' While data remains limited, a recent Pew Research Centre study reveals that AI-generated summaries now appearing regularly in Google searches discourage users from clicking through to source articles. When AI summaries are present, users click on suggested links half as often compared to traditional searches. This represents a devastating loss of visitors for online media sites that depend on traffic for both advertising revenue and subscription conversions. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up According to Northeastern University professor John Wihbey, these trends 'will accelerate, and pretty soon we will have an entirely different web.' The dominance of tech giants like Google and Meta had already slashed online media advertising revenue, forcing publishers to pivot toward paid subscriptions. But Wihbey noted that subscriptions also depend on traffic, and paying subscribers alone aren't sufficient to support major media organisations. Limited lifelines The Boston Globe group has begun seeing subscribers sign up through ChatGPT, offering a new touchpoint with potential readers, Karolian said. However, 'these remain incredibly modest compared to other platforms, including even smaller search engines.' Other AI-powered tools like Perplexity are generating even fewer new subscriptions, he added. To survive what many see as an inevitable shift, media companies are increasingly adopting GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) -- a technique that replaces traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This involves providing AI models with clearly labeled content, good structure, comprehensible text, and strong presence on social networks and forums like Reddit that get crawled by AI companies. But a fundamental question remains: 'Should you allow OpenAI crawlers to basically crawl your website and your content?' asks Thomas Peham, CEO of optimisation startup OtterlyAI. Burned by aggressive data collection from major AI companies, many news publishers have chosen to fight back by blocking AI crawlers from accessing their content. 'We just need to ensure that companies using our content are paying fair market value,' argued Danielle Coffey, who heads the News/Media Alliance trade organisation. Some progress has been made on this front. Licensing agreements have emerged between major players, such as the New York Times and Amazon, Google and Associated Press, and Mistral and Agence France-Presse, among others. But the issue is far from resolved, as several major legal battles are underway, most notably the New York Times' blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Let them crawl Publishers face a dilemma: blocking AI crawlers protects their content but reduces exposure to potential new readers. Faced with this challenge, 'media leaders are increasingly choosing to reopen access,' Peham observed. Yet even with open access, success isn't guaranteed. According to OtterlyAI data, media outlets represent just 29 per cent of citations offered by ChatGPT, trailing corporate websites at 36 per cent. And while Google search has traditionally privileged sources recognised as reliable, 'we don't see this with ChatGPT,' Peham noted. The stakes extend beyond business models. According to the Reuters Institute's 2025 Digital News Report, about 15 per cent of people under 25 now use generative AI to get their news. Given ongoing questions about AI sourcing and reliability, this trend risks confusing readers about information origins and credibility -- much like social media did before it. 'At some point, someone has to do the reporting,' Karolian said. 'Without original journalism, none of these AI platforms would have anything to summarise.' Perhaps with this in mind, Google is already developing partnerships with news organisations to feed its generative AI features, suggesting potential paths forward. 'I think the platforms will realise how much they need the press,' predicted Wihbey - though whether that realisation comes soon enough to save struggling newsrooms remains an open question. AFP
Business Times
a day ago
- Business Times
The AI race has big tech spending US$344 billion this year
[LONDON] If there's any lesson to take from the spending plans issued by the world's largest technology companies over the past two weeks, it's to never underestimate the fear of missing out. Microsoft, which set a US$24.2 billion capital spending record last quarter, plans to drop upwards of US$30 billion in the current period. similarly spent US$31.4 billion last quarter, almost double what it dropped a year ago, and is maintaining that level of investment. Google owner Alphabet raised its capital expenditures guidance this year to US$85 billion. Then there's Meta Platforms: The social networking giant lifted the low end of its forecast for 2025 capital expenditures and projected that costs will continue to grow at an even faster pace next year. Altogether, the four companies are expected to spend more than US$344 billion for the year, with much of it going to the data centres necessary to run artificial intelligence (AI) models. 'We have basically tripled capex investment in cloud due to AI,' Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said. The emphasis from virtually every company executive during this earnings season was on investing as quickly as possible to get ahead. 'We need the teams to execute at their very best to get the capacity in place as quickly and effectively as they can,' Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood told analysts in a call on Wednesday. Susan Li, Meta's CFO, said the goal of its own spend is to secure the advantage 'in developing the best AI models'. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Wall Street's response has been mixed. Meta was rewarded – in large part because the company posted a strong second-quarter sales beat and issued a rosy revenue forecast, signalling that the billions it's spending on AI are paying off. 'On advertising, the strong performance this quarter is largely thanks to AI unlocking greater efficiency and gains across our ad system,' chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said on an analyst call. Zuckerberg has plans to build several massive data centres and has been luring top AI researchers with compensation packages valued at hundreds of millions of US dollars. The company recently restructured its internal AI division, now referred to as Meta Superintelligence Labs, in an effort to build human-level AI capabilities and apply that technology across its products. Shares of the company have gained more than 8 per cent since it reported earnings on Wednesday. Amazon, on the other hand, failed to convince investors that its lavish spending has been worth it. The stock was down as much as 8.1 per cent on Friday after the company reported tepid sales from its cloud division. The results were 'especially disappointing' given the strong performance from Google's and Microsoft's own cloud services, according to Bloomberg Intelligence (BI). And the ongoing capital costs will not help. The operating margin for Amazon's cloud unit will continue to face pressure 'through 2026 as capital spending ramps up', BI analysts Poonam Goyal and Anurag Rana said. Alphabet's shares are essentially unchanged from last week when it reported earnings and issued guidance. The company raised its capital expenditures outlook by US$10 billion and expects to ramp up spending even more in 2026. chief executive officer Sundar Pichai explained that the investments are necessary to keep up with customer demand. 'Obviously, we are seeing strong momentum across our portfolio, and especially in cloud,' Pichai told analysts in a call on Jul 23. 'It's a tight supply environment, and we are investing more to expand.' Nikhil Lai, an analyst at Forrester, put it another way: If Google wants to keep up with rivals, he said, it has little choice but to follow suit: 'Google's hand is forced by OpenAI to spend tremendously on AI's infrastructure and applications.' Microsoft tied its AI investments directly to a 39 per cent jump in sales for its Azure cloud-computing division, which came in ahead of analysts' estimates. 'We continue to lead the AI infrastructure wave and took share every quarter this year,' chief executive officer Satya Nadella said in a call with analysts on Jul 30. 'In Microsoft's case, the returns are good,' Gil Luria, an analyst with DA Davidson, said. The only question now is whether Microsoft's customers are in turn seeing a decent return on investment, he said. 'That's where the test will be,' he said. 'If they don't, they are not going to increase that spend next year.' Apple's capital plans pale in comparison to its big tech peers. But the iPhone maker did raise its spending estimates, tying much of the increase to AI efforts. Apple's property, plant and equipment investments totalled US$9.47 billion in the nine months ended Jun 28, up nearly 45 per cent from a year ago. 'You are going to continue to see our capex grow,' chief financial officer Kevan Parekh told analysts on Thursday. 'It's not going to be exponential growth, but it is going to grow, substantially. And a lot of that's a function of the investments we are making in AI.' BLOOMBERG
