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Vibe coding is arguably one of many hottest tendencies in tech proper now, because it displays a wider adoption of AI and pure language prompts for primary code completion (difficult the traditional coding mindset that people ought to full downstream duties).
Google is releasing Sew, a brand new experiment from Google Labs, to compete with Microsoft, AWS, and different current end-to-end coding instruments. Now in beta, the platform designs consumer interfaces (UIs) with one immediate—and a few builders are already gushing.
“Google dropped essentially the most highly effective UI designer on the planet,” Brendan Jowett, proprietor of voice AI firm Inflate AI, posted on X.
Using AI in programming and growth definitely isn’t new, however the idea of “vibe coding” — coined by OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy earlier this yr — is a more moderen idea incorporating generative AI to automate coding duties sometimes finished manually. This goes past current AI assistants and drag-and-drop no-code and low-code instruments: The main target is on the tip consequence, not the journey there.
“You lastly give into the vibes, embrace exponentials and neglect that code even exists,” Karpathy wrote on X.
High gamers within the built-in growth setting (IDE) area embody Windsurf (previously Codeium), Cursor, Replit, Lovable, Bolt, Devin and Aider. Anthropic additionally not too long ago launched its command-line AI agent Claude Code.
Bigger gamers along with Google need to stake their declare, as properly: Amazon Internet Providers (AWS) is providing its Amazon Q Developer AI assistant as an add-on for builders to entry instantly at any level of their coding; Microsoft launched GitHub Copilot agent mode; OpenAI is trying to prolong its capabilities in vibe coding with its Codex replace and supposed $3 billion buy of Windsurf; and Agentforce is writing about 20% of Salesforce’s code.
Google, for its half, additionally not too long ago launched autonomous coding agent Jules into beta.
Sew builds UIs with a immediate
With Google Sew, customers can designate whether or not they need to construct a dashboard or internet or cellular app and describe what it ought to seem like (comparable to coloration palettes or the consumer expertise they’re going for).
The platform immediately generates HTML, CSS+ and templates with editable elements that devs and non-devs can customise and edit (comparable to instructing Sew so as to add a search perform to the house display). They’ll then add on to apps or export to Figma.
“Design is an iterative course of, and Sew facilitates this by permitting you to generate a number of variants of your interface,” Google Labs researchers clarify. “Experiment with totally different layouts, elements and types to attain the specified appear and feel.”
Customers can select a ‘commonplace mode’ that runs on Gemini 2.5 Flash or swap to an ‘experimental mode’ that makes use of Gemini Professional and permits customers to add visible parts comparable to screenshots, wireframes and sketches to information what the platform generates.
Google additionally plans to launch a characteristic permitting customers to annotate screenshots to make adjustments.
Sew is “meant for fast first drafts, wireframes and MVP-ready frontends,” Jowett notes in his X thread.
Some say layouts are ‘unreal’; others name Bolt superior
Many customers have provided early reward. One famous: “I attempted Sew with a ‘crypto pockets dashboard’ immediate and it nailed the structure in underneath 10 seconds. Unreal.”
X consumer “God of Immediate” posted: “Truthfully shocked this isn’t getting extra consideration. An actual UI generator backed by Gemini with Figma export? On the spot use-case.”
Nevertheless, others discovered the beta model lower than optimum. Elizabeth Alli of DesignerUp outlined her experiences in a weblog submit: The dev prompted Sew to make an app to assist construct mindfulness habits. She reported that it “missed the mark” on design parts (comparable to the colours she was searching for) and she or he wasn’t capable of click on round, because the platform solely generated one display (and in subsequent prompts she had issue producing the subsequent logical display or another display).
Additionally, there aren’t many modifying choices to select from, and when Alli uploaded a picture from a web site she designed, she was not impressed by the formatting, typography, coloration combos and “dated” shadows and icons.
“I had a lot larger expectations from Google on condition that there are already so many current AI to UI design technology instruments available on the market that do that a lot better,” she writes. “Their effort appears half-baked at greatest.”
Whereas it’s in beta, it doesn’t have “anyplace close to” the polished output of different choices comparable to Figma’s First Draft or Uizard’s Autodesigner. “This launch looks as if a little bit of a mad sprint to throw their hat into the ring of the AI UI design hype,” Alli notes.
Different early customers agree that Sew could be wonky and underwhelming, that the designs aren’t fairly there but, and that different current instruments are nonetheless superior.
One X consumer lamented: “I used the identical immediate that I used to generate touchdown pages in different AI instruments which return direct code, however the designs have been so a lot better within the different instruments comparable to Bolt.”
It’s clear Google has some kinks to work out if it intends to compete with already entrenched gamers. Nonetheless, it’s early within the vibe coding recreation, and customers are wanting to experiment with quite a lot of instruments, so it’ll be attention-grabbing to see Sew’s subsequent iteration.
Attempt Sew out for your self right here.
