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BREAKING: Google Launches "Antigravity"—The Agent-First IDE 🧑💻
2 hour read BREAKING: Google's new Antigravity IDE is HERE. It's an Agent-First platform powered by Gemini 3 Pro that lets autonomous agents code, test in the browser, and self-correct across the full stack. The shift: From coding to orchestration. Free Public Preview today! November 18, 2025 18:10
Google has officially released Google Antigravity, a completely new approach to software development. It's not a new code editor, but an agentic development platform (IDE) designed to replace traditional coding by putting AI agents in control of the entire development loop.
Why is Antigravity a Big Deal?
Antigravity’s core philosophy is Agent-First. Instead of being an AI-enhanced code editor (like Cursor or Windsurf), it's a platform where developers manage autonomous agents capable of performing complex, multi-step tasks across the entire development stack.
Key Features and Capabilities
Full Agent Autonomy: You provide high-level instructions (e.g., "Implement a search bar with fuzzy matching and deploy to staging"), and the agent breaks it down, writes the code, runs the terminal commands, and resolves errors without human intervention.
Deep Browser Control: The AI agents are empowered by the Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model, allowing them to fluidly move between the code, the terminal, and a built-in browser instance. This means agents can test, debug, and fix UI issues based on what they visually observe in the running application.
The Trust Solution: Artifacts: To combat the "trust deficit" in AI-generated work, Antigravity produces "Artifacts." These are verifiable logs, implementation plans, and browser recordings that allow you to review the agent's complex work in minutes instead of hours.
Powering the Platform: It runs on the newly released Gemini 3 Pro (for high-level reasoning) and uses the specialized "Nano Banana" (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) model for on-the-fly image and asset generation.
🆚 Comparison: The Shift from Enhancement to Autonomy
| Feature | Google Antigravity (New) | Cursor | Windsurf (by Codeium) |
| Core Philosophy | Agent-First Platform | AI-Enhanced IDE (VS Code Fork) | AI-Enhanced IDE (Multi-IDE Plugin) |
| Agent Autonomy | High. Agents are designed for complex, long-horizon tasks (e.g., "Build and deploy X"). They self-plan and self-verify. | Medium. Agent mode (Composer) executes multi-step tasks but typically requires more granular confirmation/prompting. | Medium. Cascade feature runs complex tasks, but its "steps" are often limited or less integrated across surfaces. |
| Verification / Trust | "Artifacts." Generates structured deliverables: implementation plans, browser recordings, and annotated screenshots for human review. | Uses diff previews and rollback features. Focuses on showing what code changed. | Uses diff previews and automatic versioning. Focuses on instantly showing the result on a dev server. |
| Browser Integration | Deep/Autonomous. Tightly coupled with the Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model. Agents can open, navigate, test, and debug an app in a built-in browser instance. | Limited. Primarily focused on code and terminal interaction within the IDE. | Limited. Primarily focused on code and terminal interaction within the IDE. |
| Underlying Model | Gemini 3 Pro (State-of-the-Art) and Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Image/Multimodal). | Supports various models (GPT, Claude, etc.), but its native features are often tied to OpenAI/Anthropic models. | Supports various models, often leveraging its own proprietary speed-optimized models (like SWE-1.5). |
| Interface / Flow | Dual View: Classic IDE view for manual coding AND a dedicated "Manager" surface to orchestrate parallel agents. | Single IDE surface (VS Code fork). AI chat and commands are sidebars/in-line. | Single IDE surface (as a plugin or simplified editor). AI chat is typically a sidebar/popup. |
The most significant difference is Antigravity's shift from being a helper tool to an autonomous feature builder. Developers move from writing code to defining intent, verifying the AI's artifacts, and orchestrating the development process.
🛠️ Get Started
Google Antigravity is available starting today in a Free Public Preview for Mac, Windows, and Linux. This release marks a potential inflection point in the shift from Human-Computer Interaction to Human-Agent Collaboration in software engineering. Check it out here: https://antigravity.google/
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