You’ve heard of coding and you’ve definitely heard of Vibber. But what do they have to do with each other? Vibe coding is a growing development area thanks to AI. It helps people build websites, apps and more. To get a better idea of ​​how vibe-coding works, why it becomes increasingly popular and what you can do with it, we talked to product director Kelly Schaefer, who leads a portfolio of AI-powered products in Google Labs.
What are you doing at Google?
My teams and I build what we call “Future of” products that focus on the future of design, writing and even software development. In the software arena, we think about how to democratize construction products. It’s not just engineers that build in the future!
And vibe coding can help with this democratization. What is your definition of vibe coding?
Vibe coding allows you to build what you imagined in your head even if you don’t have traditional coding skills. It is a process where you can, for example, use an AI tool and explain what you want to do and how you want it to look and that tool will generate something for you that you can see and use. In the past you would have had to manually write code lines to do so.
Do you need any Coding skills to vibe code?
You actually don’t – you can make simple apps just by mood coding. But it may not be the best solution depending on what you are trying to build and how many people you want to use it. If you want to bring a vibe-coded app to be a fully launched product that many people can use, you still need coding skills and precision. Sometimes people think “I just need to write two sentences about my app and I have an app in the Google Play store that everyone can use!”
So it’s not just as you can think of something, see it in your mind and poof – it’s the mood coded perfect that works exactly as you imagined?
Right. You can describe something on simple terms and get a vibe-coded app-but to make it a real product you need to continue. It’s great to start by opening a vibe coding tool and trying something simple -for example, the canvas setting in Gemini allows you to enter a prompt like “Make Me a Web App Prototype.” You get a basic product. If you wanted to transform this into something that many people could use, you could take the next step and start code or share your basic web app with a developer that would take it to the next phase. For that step, there are tools like Jules, an AI coding agent from Labs that connects with your code and adds its own code based on what you have already made – plus you can ask it to make changes using natural language. Starting all this process of vibe coding means that more of what you saw in your mind can make it the final product.
Your vision and Your mood! It sounds like vibe coding is not thoughtless, but it is useful for someone who wants to do something and don’t know how to cod. What kind of projects do you think is a good fit for vibe coding?
It can help you with prototype and visualization of your idea so you can communicate it to others, for example, if you want to make a working app or site for many people to use. Tools like Stitch are especially good for this-you can generate an interface and get front-end code and then pair it with an AI-coding agent like Jules to transform this design into work code. Jules is more of a developer tool to implement ideas at a production level. It’s really useful because you can hand over more tasks at once – something our users love! – Like solving bugs or building new features.
Together, Stitch and Jules show how vibe-coding is not just about generating snapshots of an experience, but about making the full loop from idea to design-ready code available.
I guess what I could vibe code would be very different from what an engineer could vibe code, right?
Well, definitely, but your purposes are probably also different. E.g. Stitch is great when you want to quickly describe or visualize an idea, while Jules can lead it forward in live prototypes and all the way into production. Used together, they mirror the way an engineer and a designer can collaborate. If you are not an engineer or designer, vibe coding is a way to visualize what you want an engineer to build. Instead of starting with a document, start with an interactive visual. Vibe coding tools are also totally having fun with! You can do what you want for yourself or to share with friends for no reason other than your own entertainment.
What is your advice to someone who does not want to be a traditional engineer and wants to be good enough for vibe coding to either build apps or help others visualize them?
Before using a vibe coding tool, start with Gemini and try to write prompts describing your ideas. Ask Gemini “What am I not considering here?” Or “What do some different people take on this?” You get a much better quick prompt out of it, but you will also develop more of a sense of taste, which is really important!
Why is it?
If you first iter in the description of what you want to build, start on the road stronger foot to the actual app. And you don’t want AI to make all decisions on your own – you will take the lead! What I have found is that when you chat with Gemini about your prompt, it helps back and forth conversation you to identify details that you want to include. So much of using these tools is to know yourself and what you want to accomplish, not just listening to AI.
Any other tips?
I would also suggest playing with some of these tools – like canvas or sewing. Have very low expectations for yourself! Don’t get intimidated by vibe coding. Many of our lab products began just as fast, vibe-coded experiments and then grew into stable, production-ready tools. Stitch and Jules also allow you to experiment quickly: They catch the playful energy of vibe coding, while also delivering depth and reliability developers need to build real applications.
It sounds like a great way to test ideas, even if you don’t know how to cod and just vibe out.
Yes, you have it!