Google’s New IDE Redefines Developer Productivity
A first look at Project IDX—Google’s cloud-based, AI-powered coding environment built for modern web and mobile development.
Google has quietly launched a new Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that’s poised to reshape the way developers write, test, and deploy code. Designed with cloud-native workflows and AI assistance at its core, this new tool, Firebase Studio, brings the full power of modern web development to the browser.
At its heart, Google’s IDE is a cloud-based environment built on Visual Studio Code foundations but customized to support remote development, seamless collaboration, and real-time previews—no more local setup headaches, dependency mismatches, or switching between environments. With IDX, you can go from an idea to a running app in minutes, directly from your browser.
Key Features
AI Code Assistance: Built-in support for Google’s AI models (based on Codey and Gemini) provides smart autocompletion, inline documentation, and even entire function suggestions—context-aware and constantly improving.
Instant Preview: Web, Android, and iOS apps can be previewed live without waiting for emulators to boot or local builds to complete.
Cloud Workspaces: Your code, environments, and sessions are saved in the cloud, accessible from anywhere with no need to sync across machines.
Framework Support: Out of the box, it supports major frameworks like React, Flutter, Angular, and Next.js—with templates and build tools preconfigured.
Tight Google Integration: Authentication, Firebase, and Cloud Functions integration is just a click away, reducing boilerplate and setup time drastically.
What Makes It Different?
Unlike other cloud IDEs that are often constrained by limited computing power or generic configurations, Google IDX is deeply integrated with Google Cloud. It’s fast, highly responsive, and tailor-made for the kinds of modern, distributed apps developers build today.
It also raises the bar for collaborative programming. Multiple developers can work together in the same workspace, similar to Google Docs—seeing edits in real-time, making pair programming and team debugging smoother than ever.
Is This the Future?
While it's still in preview, Google IDX shows what the future of software development could look like: fast, AI-augmented, and unchained from the local machine. It won’t replace every developer’s setup overnight, but it’s already an attractive option for web, mobile, and cross-platform projects, especially for remote teams or bootstrapped startups.
Google's latest IDE isn't just another dev tool—it’s a signpost pointing toward a cloud-first, AI-enhanced future of development.
Let’s Build a Small Astro Project and Test Google’s New IDE
Let’s try building a small project using Astro while also testing out Google’s new IDE.
In the Start coding an app section, select Astro as the project type.
Name your project—I'll go with
test. Enable TypeScript (strict mode) and Tailwind CSS
.
And just like that, we have a ready-to-go Astro project out of the box. Pretty convenient.
From here on, I’ll try to include as few images as possible to keep the post within email size limits.
How to Export a Project from Firebase Studio
The easiest method I’ve found is to connect your project to Git.
Go to the Extensions tab, search for Git, and install it—just like you would in Visual Studio Code
Now Let’s Test the Built-In AI (Gemini)
Let’s see how well Gemini performs by asking it to generate a theme toggle—a switch that allows users to change between light and dark mode. We’ll also ask it to remember the user’s choice using localStorage and apply the selected theme to the site automatically.
Here’s a well-crafted prompt you can use:
Prompt:
"Create a theme toggle component in Astro using TypeScript and Tailwind CSS. It should switch between light and dark mode, store the selected theme in localStorage, and apply the saved theme on page load. The toggle should be accessible and styled appropriately with Tailwind."
Here’s the Component Generated by Gemini
Initially, the component wasn’t fully valid—it included comments and unnecessary fragments that had to be cleaned up. But after a bit of polishing, here’s what we got:
---
// Define the script content
const script = `
const themeToggle = document.getElementById('theme-toggle');
const storedTheme = localStorage.getItem('theme');
if (storedTheme) {
document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-theme', storedTheme);
} else {
// Set default theme if none is stored (e.g., 'light')
document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-theme', 'light');
}
themeToggle.addEventListener('click', () => {
let currentTheme = document.documentElement.getAttribute('data-theme');
let newTheme = currentTheme === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark';
document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-theme', newTheme);
localStorage.setItem('theme', newTheme);
});
// Update the button text based on the current theme (optional, for initial render)
const updateButtonText = () => {
const currentTheme = document.documentElement.getAttribute('data-theme');
if (themeToggle) {
themeToggle.setAttribute('aria-label', 'Switch to ' + (currentTheme === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark') + ' mode');
}
};
updateButtonText(); // Call on load
`;
---
<button
id="theme-toggle"
class="p-2 rounded-md focus:outline-none focus:ring-2 focus:ring-offset-2 focus:ring-blue-500 dark:focus:ring-offset-gray-800 transition-colors duration-300"
aria-label="Toggle theme"
>
<svg
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
class="h-6 w-6 text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-300"
fill="none"
viewBox="0 0 24 24"
stroke="currentColor"
>
<path
stroke-linecap="round"
stroke-linejoin="round"
stroke-width="2"
d="M12 3v1m0 16v1m9-9h-1M4 12H3m15.364 6.364l-.707-.707M6.343 6.343l-.707-.707m12.728 0l-.707.707M6.343 17.657l-.707.707M16 12a4 4 0 11-8 0 4 4 0 018 0z"
></path>
</svg>
</button>
<script is:inline set:html={script} />
<style is:global>
/* Add this to your global styles or a dedicated theme file */
:root {
--color-text: #333;
--color-background: #fff;
}
[data-theme='dark'] {
--color-text: #eee;
--color-background: #1a202c; /* Example dark background from Tailwind */
}
body {
color: var(--color-text);
background-color: var(--color-background);
transition: color 0.3s ease, background-color 0.3s ease;
}
</style
Honestly, the Result Is Underwhelming
The output so far is pretty mediocre. To fairly evaluate Gemini's capabilities, we’ll need to compare it against tools like Cursor and Claude, ideally using a more complex project as a benchmark.
So for now, there’s no reason to worry—developers aren’t being replaced by AI anytime soon. 😉