Google’s Mixboard brings Android users an AI boost for creativity

What you need to know

• Mixboard is Google’s new AI mood board app, built to help you brainstorm, remix, and explore ideas visually.
• It’s U.S.-only for now and available through Google Labs as an experimental tool.
• You can start from scratch or use templates, then let AI generate images, layouts, text, and color palettes from your prompts.
• It runs on Google’s Gemini AI plus a new image engine called Nano Banana, which lets you tweak visuals with simple text instructions.

Google has introduced Mixboard, a new AI-powered mood board app designed to help you brainstorm, explore, and remix creative ideas in a more interactive way.

Currently available in the U.S. through Google Labs, Mixboard functions as a kind of experimental playground where you can start with a blank canvas or use a template, then let AI generate images, layouts, text snippets, and color palettes based on whatever concept you type in.

Whether it’s “a cozy coffee nook with plants” or “retro travel poster vibes,” Mixboard pulls together visual elements you can then refine, rearrange, and expand on. Unlike traditional tools, it doesn’t stop at static generation, meaning you can edit your board using natural language commands like “make this brighter” or “combine these two elements,” and quickly spin off variants with the “regenerate” or “more like this” options.

Gemini + Nano Banana: The tech behind the tool

At the heart of Mixboard is Google’s Gemini AI model, paired with a new image editing engine called Nano Banana. This tool focuses on making subtle but powerful adjustments through text prompts rather than manual tweaking. You can also upload your own images and let the AI adapt or extend them, making Mixboard useful not only for inspiration but also for remixing existing ideas.

Google emphasizes that Mixboard is not a polished design suite like Photoshop or Canva. Instead, it is meant to be a space for brainstorming during the messy middle stage of creativity, when you are moving from a vague idea to a finished product.

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Google frames Mixboard as an ideation engine rather than a final design tool. It enters a space that has been dominated by Pinterest, Canva, and Adobe’s creative tools. Like these platforms, Mixboard offers a visually focused, collaborative experience, but it stands out by including generative AI from the beginning.

This blend of AI and visual boards turns Mixboard into a design canvas that reacts to your ideas in real time. The app is especially approachable for non-designers, since AI lowers the barrier to producing mood boards and creative drafts without specialized skills.

For now, Mixboard is a work in progress. It’s an experiment with rough edges. But its debut signals a broader move from Google to push AI beyond text and search, into tools that reflect how people actually brainstorm and think visually.