The Best Google Tools, Apps and Services Worth Using in 2026

A laptop and phone surrounded by colorful Google app icons

Google ships and kills products at a relentless pace, so a tool list from a few years ago is mostly tombstones now. Picasa, Google+, Reader, Inbox, Hangouts, Stadia and Currents are all gone, and in 2026 even Google Assistant is being retired in favour of Gemini. The flip side is that Google's surviving services are deeper and more genuinely useful than ever, largely because Gemini AI now runs underneath almost all of them. This guide skips the obvious staples (Search, Gmail) and the marketer-only tools (Ads, Search Console) to focus on 13 free or low-cost Google products that earn a place in everyday life: an AI assistant, a research notebook, a visual search engine, photo and note apps, translation, mapping, academic search, and data-discovery tools. Each entry below has been checked as live and actively updated as of mid-2026, with current capabilities rather than legacy descriptions. Where a tool now has paid AI tiers, that is noted so you know what is actually free.

Skip these — they’re gone: Picasa, Google+, Reader, Inbox, Hangouts, Stadia and Currents have all been discontinued, and Google Assistant is being replaced by Gemini through 2026. Any older “best Google tools” list that still recommends them is out of date.

The Best Google Tools at a Glance

The Best Google Tools and Apps to Use in 2026

Gemini

Google Gemini homepage
Gemini is Google’s AI assistant and the successor to Bard and Assistant.

Free, paid AI tiers / AI assistant

Gemini is Google's AI assistant and the successor to both Bard and Google Assistant, which it is fully replacing on Android through 2026. It answers complex multi-step questions, writes and edits text, analyses images and documents, generates images, and connects to Gmail, Docs, Maps and other Google apps. A capable free tier covers everyday use; Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions unlock the latest Gemini 3.1 Pro models, higher limits and deep research. It is the single most important Google tool to learn in 2026.

NotebookLM

Free, Pro tier / AI research

NotebookLM is an AI research assistant that grounds its answers in sources you upload, such as PDFs, slides, websites and YouTube videos, so it cites your own material instead of inventing facts. Its standout feature turns documents into Audio Overviews, podcast-style discussions between AI hosts, plus Video Overviews, Mind Maps and Reports. In 2026 it added a multi-tasking Studio, cinematic videos and support for over 80 languages. It is excellent for studying, summarising dense reports and onboarding into unfamiliar topics.

Google Lens

Free / visual search

Google Lens turns your camera or any on-screen image into a search query. Point it at a plant, landmark, product, math problem or block of foreign text and it identifies, translates, copies or shops for it. In 2026 it is powered by Gemini and can recognise multiple objects in one photo, so you can break down a whole outfit or room at once. Built into Android, the Google app, Chrome and iOS share sheets, it now handles billions of visual searches a month and is genuinely faster than typing for many lookups.

Google Photos

Free 15GB, paid storage / photos

Google Photos backs up your pictures and videos, organises them with face and object recognition, and makes everything searchable by description. Its powerful AI editing tools, Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Reimagine, are free to all users (on non-Pixel devices Magic Editor is capped at about 10 saves a month; unlimited on Pixel). Ask Photos lets you query your library in plain language ("where did we go last summer?"), and Nano Banana restyles let you transform images from a text prompt. Free storage is 15GB shared across your Google account; more requires a Google One plan.

Google Keep

Free / notes and lists

Google Keep is a lightweight note-taking app for quick thoughts, checklists, voice memos and photos, with colour-coded cards, labels and location- or time-based reminders. It syncs instantly across phone, web and the Google Workspace sidebar. In 2026 Gemini integration lets you generate full notes from a short prompt, summarise existing notes, build checklists and translate into dozens of languages. It is not a heavyweight like Notion, but for fast, frictionless capture that lives inside the Google ecosystem it remains one of the most practical free tools.

Google Translate

Free / translation

Google Translate handles text, voice, camera and document translation across more than 100 languages. With Gemini models added in 2026, it now does real-time live conversation translation in over 70 languages and streams translations to your headphones while preserving each speaker's tone and cadence. New language-practice and pronunciation tools give tailored listening and speaking sessions with instant AI feedback, nudging it toward Duolingo territory. Offline language packs keep core translation working without a connection, making it indispensable for travel and cross-language communication.

Google Maps and Timeline

Free / navigation

Google Maps remains the benchmark for navigation, transit, live traffic and local business info. In 2026 it added Gemini-powered Immersive Navigation, a 3D view rendering buildings, lanes and traffic lights in real time, plus an "Ask Maps" conversational layer. Your personal Timeline privately logs places you have visited and now stores that data on-device by default for better privacy, with optional encrypted backup. Note the standalone web Timeline was retired, so manage location history in the mobile app. It is the most-used Google tool after Search for good reason.

Google Earth

Free, Pro plans / mapping

Google Earth is an interactive 3D globe for exploring satellite imagery, terrain and Street View anywhere on the planet. In 2026 historical imagery came to web and mobile, letting you rewind decades, some cities back to the 1930s, to watch how places changed. New Earth AI features let you search the imagery catalogue in natural language ("find algae blooms in US rivers"), and Cloud Score+ sharpens pictures by removing haze and clouds. The core app is free; new Professional plans add geospatial analysis for researchers, planners and journalists.

Google Scholar

Free / academic search

Google Scholar is the go-to free search engine for academic literature, indexing journal articles, theses, books, conference papers and court opinions across disciplines. It shows citation counts, links to full-text PDFs and lets you build a public profile and citation alerts. Its companion Scholar PDF Reader Chrome extension now uses AI to generate per-section outlines, preview in-text citations and jump to figures, so you can skim a paper fast and deep-read only what matters. For students, researchers and the curious, it stays an essential starting point.

Google Trends

Free / data and research

Google Trends reveals how search interest in any topic rises and falls over time and across regions, on a relative 0-100 scale. Its rebuilt Trending Now experience now spans 125 countries, refreshes every 10 minutes and uses a forecasting engine that surfaces far more emerging trends, with breakdowns of when each started and related news. A Gemini-powered AI side panel on the Explore page suggests related queries and compares up to eight terms. It is invaluable for marketers, journalists, researchers and anyone gauging public curiosity, and entirely free.

Google Arts & Culture

Google Arts & Culture homepage
Google Arts & Culture puts museum collections online for free.

Free / culture and education

Google Arts & Culture is a free window into more than 2,000 partner museums and archives worldwide. You can virtually walk galleries via Street View, zoom into ultra-high-resolution artworks to see brushstrokes, take VR tours of landmarks, and place life-sized art in your room with AR. Playful experiments like Art Selfie, Blob Opera and color- or pose-matching tools make it surprisingly fun and a favourite in classrooms. For exploring world heritage, history and art from home, few free resources match its depth and polish.

Google Forms

Free / productivity

Google Forms is a free tool for building surveys, quizzes, RSVPs and feedback forms that collect responses into a linked Google Sheet for instant analysis. It supports many question types, branching logic, response validation and auto-graded quizzes. In 2026 Gemini added a "Help me create" feature that drafts a full form from a plain-language description or an existing Doc, Sheet or PDF, plus AI summaries that surface quantitative themes from open-text answers. For anyone gathering structured input without paying for a survey platform, it is hard to beat.

Google Dataset Search

Free / data discovery

Google Dataset Search is a specialised engine for finding open and downloadable datasets across the web. A simple keyword search surfaces data from more than 13,000 repositories, indexing tens of millions of datasets spanning government, scientific, commercial and academic sources. Filters let you narrow by format (table, image, text), usage rights and free availability. Because it relies on schema.org metadata that publishers add to their own pages, it reaches into the long tail of data the open web offers. It is a quietly powerful free tool for researchers, journalists and analysts.

Getting the Most from Google’s Tools

The thread running through Google’s 2026 lineup is Gemini — its AI now powers Search, Photos, Maps, Keep, Lens and more, so learning Gemini first makes every other tool more useful. Most of these are free with a Google account; the paid Google One / AI Pro tiers mainly add more storage and higher AI limits. Mix and match: use NotebookLM for research, Lens for visual lookups, Keep for quick capture and Trends or Scholar for data and reading. If visual search is your thing, see our guide to reverse image search engines.

Official Google Product Pages

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Google tools replaced Picasa and Google Assistant?

Picasa was discontinued in 2016 and its features live on in Google Photos, which adds AI editing, face recognition and natural-language search. Google Assistant is being retired through 2026 and replaced by Gemini, Google's AI assistant. Gemini handles voice commands plus far more, including complex reasoning, writing, image analysis and connections to Gmail, Maps and Docs across Android and the web.

Are these Google tools free to use in 2026?

Most are free. Trends, Lens, Keep, Translate, Maps, Earth, Scholar, Arts & Culture, Forms and Dataset Search cost nothing for core use. Gemini, NotebookLM and Google Photos have generous free tiers but reserve their most advanced AI models, higher limits and extra cloud storage for paid Google One AI Pro or Ultra subscriptions. You can get real value from every tool here without paying.

Which popular Google products have been discontinued?

Google has shut down many well-known products: Picasa (2016), Google Reader (2013), Google+ (2019), Inbox by Gmail (2019), Hangouts (folded into Messages and Meet), Stadia cloud gaming (2023) and Currents (2023). Google Assistant is being phased out in 2026 in favour of Gemini. The community-run Killed by Google site tracks the full graveyard, so avoid recommending any of these dead services.

What is NotebookLM and how is it different from Gemini?

NotebookLM is an AI research tool that answers only from sources you upload, such as PDFs, slides and videos, and cites them, which reduces made-up facts. Gemini is a general-purpose assistant that draws on broad knowledge and the web. Use NotebookLM to study or summarise specific documents, including its podcast-style Audio and Video Overviews; use Gemini for open-ended questions, writing and tasks across Google apps.

Is Google Photos still a good choice for backing up photos?

Yes. Google Photos remains one of the best photo apps, combining automatic backup, powerful searchable AI organisation, and free editing tools like Magic Editor and Magic Eraser that previously required a subscription. The catch is storage: only 15GB is free and shared across Gmail and Drive, so heavy users need a paid Google One plan. Its Ask Photos feature also lets you query your library conversationally.

Google adds, changes and retires features quickly. Confirm current capabilities and any free-tier limits on each product’s official page, and note that some advanced AI features require a paid Google One / AI plan.