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Vibe coding is arguably one of the hottest trends in tech right now, as it reflects a wider adoption of AI and natural language prompts for basic code completion (challenging the conventional coding mindset that humans should complete downstream tasks).
Google is releasing Stitch, a new experiment from Google Labs, to compete with Microsoft, AWS, and other existing end-to-end coding tools. Now in beta, the platform designs user interfaces (UIs) with one prompt—and some developers are already gushing.
“Google dropped the most powerful UI designer in the world,” Brendan Jowett, owner of voice AI company Inflate AI, posted on X.
The use of AI in programming and development certainly isn’t new, but the concept of “vibe coding” — coined by OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy earlier this year — is a newer concept incorporating generative AI to automate coding tasks typically done manually. This goes beyond existing AI assistants and drag-and-drop no-code and low-code tools: The focus is on the end result, not the journey there.
“You finally give into the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that code even exists,” Karpathy wrote on X.
Top players in the integrated development environment (IDE) space include Windsurf (formerly Codeium), Cursor, Replit, Lovable, Bolt, Devin and Aider. Anthropic also recently launched its command-line AI agent Claude Code.
Larger players in addition to Google are looking to stake their claim, as well: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is offering its Amazon Q Developer AI assistant as an add-on for developers to access directly at any point in their coding; Microsoft released GitHub Copilot agent mode; OpenAI is looking to extend its capabilities in vibe coding with its Codex update and intended $3 billion purchase of Windsurf; and Agentforce is writing about 20% of Salesforce’s code.
Google, for its part, also recently released autonomous coding agent Jules into beta.
Stitch builds UIs with a prompt
With Google Stitch, users can designate whether they want to build a dashboard or web or mobile app and describe what it should look like (such as color palettes or the user experience they’re going for).
The platform instantly generates HTML, CSS+ and templates with editable components that devs and non-devs can customize and edit (such as instructing Stitch to add a search function to the home screen). They can then add directly to apps or export to Figma.
“Design is an iterative process, and Stitch facilitates this by allowing you to generate multiple variants of your interface,” Google Labs researchers explain. “Experiment with different layouts, components and styles to achieve the desired look and feel.”
Users can choose a ‘standard mode’ that runs on Gemini 2.5 Flash or switch to an ‘experimental mode’ that uses Gemini Pro and allows users to upload visual elements such as screenshots, wireframes and sketches to guide what the platform generates.
Google also plans to release a feature allowing users to annotate screenshots to make changes.
Stitch is “meant for quick first drafts, wireframes and MVP-ready frontends,” Jowett notes in his X thread.
Some say layouts are ‘unreal’; others call Bolt superior
Many users have offered early praise. One noted: “I tried Stitch with a ‘crypto wallet dashboard’ prompt and it nailed the layout in under 10 seconds. Unreal.”
X user “God of Prompt” posted: “Honestly shocked this isn’t getting more attention. A real UI generator backed by Gemini with Figma export? Instant use-case.”
However, others found the beta version less than optimal. Elizabeth Alli of DesignerUp outlined her experiences in a blog post: The dev prompted Stitch to make an app to help build mindfulness habits. She reported that it “missed the mark” on design elements (such as the colors she was looking for) and she wasn’t able to click around, as the platform only generated one screen (and in subsequent prompts she had difficulty generating the next logical screen or any other screen).
Also, there aren’t many editing options to choose from, and when Alli uploaded an image from a website she designed, she was not impressed by the formatting, typography, color combinations and “dated” shadows and icons.
“I had much higher expectations from Google given that there are already so many existing AI to UI design generation tools on the market that do this much better,” she writes. “Their effort seems half-baked at best.”
While it is in beta, it doesn’t have “anywhere near” the polished output of other offerings such as Figma’s First Draft or Uizard’s Autodesigner. “This release seems like a bit of a mad dash to throw their hat into the ring of the AI UI design hype,” Alli notes.
Other early users agree that Stitch can be wonky and underwhelming, that the designs aren’t quite there yet, and that other existing tools are still superior.
One X user lamented: “I used the same prompt that I used to generate landing pages in other AI tools which return direct code, but the designs were so much better in the other tools such as Bolt.”
It’s clear Google has some kinks to work out if it intends to compete with already entrenched players. Still, it’s early in the vibe coding game, and users are eager to experiment with a variety of tools, so it’ll be interesting to see Stitch’s next iteration.
Try Stitch out for yourself here.
