Who can see a shared Gemini canvas?

A Gemini canvas is shared by a public link, and in an app that shares data, anyone with it can view and edit all of it. What to check before a client sees one.

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By Kaz Kato · Published 20 October 2026 · Updated 20 October 2026

Anyone with the link. Gemini shares a canvas through a public link. For an app that keeps data shared between its users, anyone with that link can view and edit all of the app’s data. Before you send one to a client, take any real data out of it, and treat the link as public.

This guide covers who can open a shared canvas, what they can do with it, whether you can take it back, and what to check before a client sees one. Is it safe to send a client an AI-built app? is the general checklist. What a Claude artifact is, and who can see it asks the same question of Claude.

Who can open a shared Gemini canvas?

Whoever has the link, as far as Google’s help says. Canvas apps are shared through public links, which open only at gemini.google.com, not in the Gemini mobile app. Google’s pages don’t say whether a viewer must be signed in to a Google account, so don’t count on a sign-in to keep anyone out.

  • A public link. Gemini Canvas apps are shared through public links. In an app that shares data between users, anyone with the link can view and edit all of its data.
  • On the web only. A shared Gemini Canvas link opens only at gemini.google.com, not in the Gemini mobile app.

A public link goes wherever it is sent. A client who forwards it to a colleague, or pastes it into a team chat, has shared it with everyone there.

What can they do with it?

Use it, copy it and, in some apps, change your data. Anyone who opens the link can make their own copy and keep editing it. In an app that shares data between its users, anyone with the link can view and edit all of it. In one that doesn’t, each person sees only their own.

  • Copy it. Whoever opens a shared Gemini Canvas link can make a copy and carry on editing it in Canvas themselves, unless they are under 18.
  • Shared data. In an app that shares data between users, everyone with the link sees and changes the same records.
  • Data kept apart. In a Gemini Canvas app that does not share data between users, each person’s data can be seen and edited only by them.
  • The code. A Gemini Canvas app’s code opens in a Code view, where it can be read and edited directly. We read that, with the copy, as meaning that whoever has the link can see how the app works.

For a shared chat, yes: Gemini lists your public links, and deleting one closes it. Google’s help doesn’t say whether a link made from the canvas itself is in that list. And as we read it, a copy someone has already made is theirs, so taking the link back would not take back their copy.

  • Deleting a public link. A Gemini public link is deleted from Settings and help, under Your public links; anyone who opens it afterwards is told the chat no longer exists.
  • A shared chat is a snapshot. A shared Gemini chat includes the Canvas documents made in it, and shows the chat as it was when the link was made: later edits do not reach the link. So in a shared chat, a fix you make after sharing does not reach the people who have the link. Google’s help doesn’t say whether a canvas link works the same way.

Before you share one with a client: a checklist

  1. No real data in it. No customer records, no personal details, nothing from the client’s own systems.
  2. Know whether the app shares data between its users. If it does, everyone with the link sees and changes the same data.
  3. Assume anyone with the link can copy it, and read how it works.
  4. Tell the client the link is public, and ask them not to forward it.
  5. For anything private, don’t send the shared link at all. Show it another way, below.

Mock data in an AI-built demo has ways to fill an app with invented records that look like the client’s world.

How else can I show it to a client?

Show it on a call, from your own screen, so the canvas never leaves you. Or take the app out of Gemini and put it in a room, with a link for each person. Google’s help names no way to download a canvas app’s files, so that means copying its code out of the Code view.

Gemini’s own exports are for documents, slides and code, not apps. Gemini Canvas exports text to a new Google Doc, slides to Google Slides or a PDF, Python code to Colab, and a doc with LaTeX as a PDF.

To put it in a room instead:

  1. Copy the code out. Open the Code view and copy the app’s code into a folder on your machine.
  2. Swap any Gemini calls for canned answers. Demoing an AI app without a live API key shows how.
  3. Make it a page a browser runs on its own. Ask your AI agent to do it, with every record invented.
  4. Deploy the folder as a static demo, which runs on every plan (static demos). On Pro, make each person their own link, and see each one’s visits under their name.

Take the real data out, and send each client a link of their own rather than one public link for everyone.

Questions people ask

Does someone need a Google account to open my Gemini canvas?

Google’s help pages don’t say. Treat the link as public: assume anyone who has it can open it, including anyone it is forwarded to.

Can someone change my Gemini app?

Gemini Canvas apps are shared through public links. In an app that shares data between users, anyone with the link can view and edit all of its data. They can also copy the canvas and keep editing their own copy.

Can I open a shared canvas in the Gemini app?

A shared Gemini Canvas link opens only at gemini.google.com, not in the Gemini mobile app. So send it to someone who will open it in a browser.

Sources

About the author

Kaz Kato, Co-founder & CTO, Roomi. Kaz co-founded Roomi with Tesh, whom he has built with since 2017: two startups that failed, one venture studio that didn’t, and an exit. More at katosan.co.uk.

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