In a surprise move, Google dropped Opal, a new tool that lets you describe, create, and share your own AI mini-apps using only natural language. It's a clear shot at the workflow automation space, and it might just change everything. We had to take it for a spin.
First Impressions: Is This N8N for the Rest of Us?
At first glance, Opal feels a lot like N8N. You have a canvas where you chain together different operations to create a workflow. But here's the kicker: you don't drag and drop nodes. You just prompt it. You tell it what you want in plain English, and Opal builds the entire workflow for you. Each step is customizable, allowing you to swap out different AI models to fine-tune the process. It's a radically simple approach to a complex task.
Test 1: The AI Blog Post Writer
For our first test, we tasked Opal with writing a blog post about the recent $200 million funding round for "lovable" and its impact on the no-code world. The prompt was simple, but the workflow Opal generated was surprisingly sophisticated.
Research Topic
Opal started by researching the topic to gather information.
Create Outline
It then generated a structured outline for the blog post.
Create Banner Image
Next, it designed a banner image to accompany the article.
Write Post
Finally, it wrote the full post based on the research and outline.
The Result: The output was impressive. The article, titled "Writing the Vibe: How Lovable's $200 Million Boost is Shaking Up the No-Code World," was well-written and coherent. While the banner image was generic and didn't include the company's logo, the overall quality was remarkably high for a single-prompt generation.
Test 2: The YouTube Thumbnail Generator
Next, we tried something more creative: a YouTube thumbnail generator. The prompt was specific: "Create a high-quality YouTube thumbnail generator. It should take a YouTube video URL, analyze the video's content, and produce a clean, modern, and simple thumbnail. The thumbnail should feature one bold statement (3-4 words max) and incorporate the main visual themes or logos from the video."
Opal generated the app in seconds. We fed it a URL to a popular tech review video to see what it could do. The result was mind-blowing.
The Result: This was a home run. Opal took a key screenshot directly from the video, isolated the main subject, and created a clean, professional thumbnail. Incredibly, it even pulled text from a slide shown in the video and used it as the thumbnail's headline, adding a stylish glow effect. While the AI-generated face was a bit off, the ability to add your own image would make this a game-changer.
Test 3: The Viral News Scraper
We decided to push Opal's data-gathering capabilities. The initial idea was to scan TikTok profiles, but Opal quickly informed us it couldn't access social media APIs directly. A fair limitation. We pivoted to a new prompt: "Can you find the top 10 most talked about or viral AI-related news around no-code vibe coding? Write me one-minute TikTok descriptions and scripts for each story."
This would require scraping news sources from the web. Opal didn't flinch.
Research AI Topics
Conduct in-depth research on the web.
Extract Viral Stories
Identify and pull the top 10 stories.
Generate Scripts
Write a unique TikTok script for each story.
The Result: Success! Opal generated a list of 10 viral stories, complete with engaging, one-minute video scripts for each. For example, it picked up on Andrej Karpathy's viral tweet about "the hottest new programming language is English" and produced a script that was genuinely good and ready to shoot. This is a massive time-saver for content creators.
Test 4: The AI Video Ad Creator
For the final test, we asked Opal to create a promotional video for Zello.com, a hotel booking site. The prompt highlighted the key value proposition: "we are going directly to the hotels and getting the lowest rates around, beating the likes of Booking.com or Expedia.com." We specified the target audience as travel bloggers and influencers.
The Result: It worked. Opal generated a short video ad complete with stock footage, voiceover, and on-screen text. While it would need more detailed prompting (perhaps with JSON) to create a polished, brand-aligned final product, the fact that it produced a usable video ad from a simple text prompt is astounding. It even included a call-to-action button that linked directly to the website.
The Verdict: Is N8N Obsolete?
After just a short time with Opal, it's clear this is a powerful and disruptive tool. The simplicity is its greatest strength. The ability to generate complex, multi-step workflows from a single prompt lowers the barrier to entry for automation to almost zero.
While power users may still prefer the granular control of tools like N8N, for the vast majority of users who need to quickly create simple tools and automations, Opal is a revelation. It's faster, more intuitive, and the results are shockingly good.
Your Turn to Create
Google Opal is available now and it's free to try. What mini-apps will you create?
Try Opal Now