When you give your Hand access to another service, you mostly care about the result: read a calendar, work with files, update a project or use another business tool. You should not have to learn integration terminology before you can get started.
That is why Hands uses Apps as the simple umbrella. Under Apps there are two ways a service can be connected: Plug-ins and Connectors.
Apps is the category. A Plug-in is an app with a preconfigured OAuth sign-in flow. A Connector is an app connected through MCP. The difference is mainly in setup, not in what you have to think about every time you use your Hand.
First: what is an App?
An App is simply something you connect so your Hand can work with it. Think of it as adding a new capability to your digital coworker. The App may be a service you already use every day, or a system that exposes useful tools through MCP.
The word App therefore tells you what you are adding. Plug-in and Connector tell you how it gets connected.
Hands already knows the provider’s login route. You sign in, review the requested access and approve it.
Hands connects to a compatible MCP server. Depending on that server, setup can include an address, token, API key or other connection details.
What is a Plug-in?
A Plug-in is the easiest kind of connection to recognize. Hands has already prepared the connection to the provider using OAuth. You do not need to know that technical term to use it; in practice it is the familiar flow where a service asks you to sign in and approve access.
- Choose the Plug-in. Hands already knows how this provider is connected.
- Sign in with the provider. The login happens with the service you are connecting.
- Review the access request. The provider shows what the connection is asking permission to use.
- Approve and return to Hands. The app can then be used within the access that was granted.
You click Connect, sign in to the service, approve the requested access and come back. You normally do not need to paste an MCP address or copy an API key into the setup.
A Plug-in does not mean “unlimited access”. The provider still decides which permissions exist, which permissions are requested and what your account is allowed to do. You can also remove the connection again, and provider-side access can be managed with the provider.
What is a Connector?
A Connector uses MCP, a standard that lets an AI system discover and use tools exposed by another system. You do not need to understand the protocol itself. The useful idea is that an MCP server tells your Hand: “these are the tools I can provide.”
Some Connectors can be selected from a known catalog. You can also connect a compatible public remote MCP server yourself. Depending on the service, setup may ask for a server address and possibly a bearer token, API key or custom headers.
- Choose or add the MCP connection. This can be a known Connector or a compatible server you provide.
- Add the connection details the server needs. Some need only a URL; others require a credential as well.
- The server exposes its tools. Your Hand can use the tools that the MCP server actually makes available.
- Your provider access still matters. The connected account, token, key or headers determine what the provider allows through those tools.
A Connector does not make a broad provider credential automatically narrow. Use credentials that are appropriate for the work you want the Hand to do, and only connect systems you intend that Hand to use.
What changes in practice?
Which one do you use?
You usually do not need to make a technical choice. Start with the service you want your Hand to use. If Hands offers it as a Plug-in, the setup is designed around the provider’s sign-in and approval flow. If it is available as an MCP Connector, you connect it through the MCP route shown for that service.
Connectors are also useful when you have a compatible MCP service that is not a preconfigured Plug-in — including a service your own organization operates. The label tells you how the connection is made; it does not by itself say that one app is more capable than another.
Apps is the shelf. Plug-ins are the “sign in and approve” route. Connectors are the MCP route. After setup, your attention can go back to the work you want your Hand to do.
Start with the service, not the technology.
When you open Apps in Hands, choose what you want your Hand to work with. The interface will make clear whether that service connects as a Plug-in or a Connector and which setup steps are required.