Incubator for Google products
Area 120 isGoogle 's in-house incubator in which employees work on20% Project product ideas. It has helped developGmail ,AdSense ,Google News ,Call Center AI , and Aloud, YouTube's translation and dubbing tool.[ 1]
The Area 120 division was created bySundar Pichai in March 2016 and has since spawned over 200 projects.[ 1] [ 2] [ 1]
In November 2021, the division was reorganized under a new division called Google Labs (unrelated to the defunct serviceof the same name ).[ 3]
Area 120 was significantly reduced as part of Google's January 2023 layoffs.[ 4]
The program has funded more than 200 different ideas from Google employees. Notable product experiments which have emerged from Area 120 include:
Aloud [ 5] [ 6] [ 7] YouTube auto dubbing .Tables Airtable . Graduated to Google Cloud.[ 8] Reply Android app which allowed users to insert pre-defined replies (called "Smart Replies") into conversations on messaging apps on their phone.[ 9] Stack – anAndroid app that digitizes personal documents and extracts key information.[ 10] Gamesnacks – anHTML5 games platform for mobile websites.[ 11] Keen – a competitor toPinterest .[ 12] Byteboard – a product that interviews software engineering candidates.[ 13] [ 14] ThreadIt – ashort-form video communication service.[ 15] Orion Wifi – a product letting businesses sellWi-Fi capacity towireless carriers .[ 16] Shoploop – a video shopping platform.[ 17] Touring Bird – a search tool for experiences in major cities.[ 18] Google Travel .[ 19] Tangi – ashort-form video site.[ 20] AdVR – a product providingadvertisements in VR.[ 21] Chatbase – a conversational AI platform for building and analyzing customer service chatbots.[ 22] Google Cloud .AdLingo – a marketing platform for bringing conversational assistants into display advertising.[ 23] Google Workspace .The Byteboard project was spun out from Google into a separate company in Oct 2021,[ 14]
^a b c McCracken, Harry (December 3, 2018)."An exclusive look inside Google's in-house incubator Area 120" .Fast Company . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ "Google Unveils Advr, An Experimental Area 120 Project for Advertising in VR" .Customer Experience Magazine . June 30, 2017. Archived fromthe original on September 18, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 .^ Perez, Sarah (November 11, 2021)."Google reorg moves AR, VR, Starline and Area 120 into new 'Labs' team" .TechCrunch Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. RetrievedNovember 14, 2021 . ^ Wiggers, Kyle (January 21, 2023)."Area 120, Google's in-house incubator, severely impacted by Alphabet mass layoffs" .TechCrunch Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. RetrievedJanuary 23, 2023 . ^ "Overcoming the language barrier in videos with Aloud" .Google . March 9, 2022. RetrievedOctober 8, 2025 .^ "How two high school rivals became co-creators of YouTube's AI-powered dubbing tool" .blog.youtube . RetrievedOctober 8, 2025 .^ Peters, Jay (June 22, 2023)."YouTube is getting AI-powered dubbing" .The Verge . RetrievedOctober 8, 2025 . ^ Perez, Sarah (June 14, 2021)."Google's AirTable rival, Tables, graduates from beta test to become a Google Cloud product" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Garun, Natt (February 22, 2018)."Google's Reply app is woefully bland — exactly the way it should be" .The Verge . RetrievedSeptember 29, 2022 . ^ Perez, Sarah (March 30, 2021)."Google's Area 120 launches Stack, an app that digitizes personal docs and extracts key information" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Singh, Manish; Kene-Okafor, Tage (February 23, 2021)."Area 120 is beginning to use Google's massive reach to scale HTML5 GameSnacks platform" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Vincent, James (June 19, 2020)."Google quietly launches an AI-powered Pinterest rival named Keen" .The Verge . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Lardinois, Frederic (July 17, 2019)."Google's Area 120 launches Byteboard to improve technical interviews" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^a b Perez, Sarah (October 5, 2021)."Technical interview platform Byteboard spins out of Google's Area 120, takes on new funding" .TechCrunch . RetrievedOctober 5, 2021 . ^ Heater, Brian (March 18, 2021)."Google Area 120's ThreadIt is bite-size video for team collaborations" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Hetting, Claus (September 8, 2021)."Google's new 'Orion WiFi' empowers public venues to make money on Wi-Fi offload" .WiFi Now . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Perez, Sarah (July 16, 2020)."Google's latest R&D project is Shoploop, a mobile video shopping platform" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Plautz, Jessica (September 6, 2018)."Easily Find the Best Activities in Top Destinations With This New Tool Out of Google" .Travel + Leisure . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Poojary, Lax (October 22, 2019)."Touring Bird lands with Google to plan your perfect trip" .The Keyword . Google. RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Perez, Sarah (January 29, 2020)."Google's Area 120 launches Tangi, a short-form video app focused on creativity and DIY" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Perez, Sarah (June 28, 2017)."Google unveils Advr, an experimental Area 120 project for advertising in VR" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 18, 2021 . ^ Perez, Sarah (November 16, 2017)."Google's chatbot analytics platform Chatbase launches to public" .TechCrunch . RetrievedFebruary 9, 2023 . ^ Ha, Anthony (October 16, 2018)."Google-incubated AdLingo uses chatbot integration to create conversational ads" .TechCrunch . RetrievedSeptember 28, 2023 .
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