Google's cloud division has donated the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol - a technology enabling AI agent collaboration - to the Linux Foundation. The search giant announced this move at the North American Open Source Summit in Denver on Monday. "By providing an open collaboration framework with IP management and long-term governance, we aim to accelerate adoption of the A2A protocol," stated Google executives in their official blog post. The protocol addresses scenarios where multiple AI agents automate tasks for users. For instance, network troubleshooting tools might employ one agent to diagnose router issues while another resolves switch problems. These agents could then share technical data to identify root causes affecting both devices. Previously requiring complex custom code for agent coordination, A2A simplifies this process by offering prepackaged functions for data transmission between agents. Google highlights A2A's broad applicability: agents can route requests to other specialized agents when needed, and collaborate on complex tasks requiring human input over days. Leveraging JSON format for inter-agent communication, A2A benefits from this widely-adopted standard due to its simplicity, low memory usage, and security advantages over XML. The JSON files can carry both text and multimodal data - such as UI sketches paired with CSS implementation instructions that coding assistants could process through the protocol. A2A employs three communication modes: synchronous mode for straightforward interactions, and two additional modes for extended tasks with intermediate progress updates. The protocol complements Anthropic PBC's Model Context Protocol (MCP) by enabling agent-to-agent interactions while MCP handles agent-to-database communication. Alongside the A2A specification, Google contributed SDKs and tools to the Linux Foundation. This initiative has already secured support from six major tech companies - AWS, Cisco, Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce, and SAP - in addition to Alphabet divisions. "Joining the Linux Foundation ensures A2A's long-term neutrality, collaboration, and governance, ushering in a new era of agent-driven productivity," said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin.