Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, officially known as Nano Banana, has significantly boosted the Gemini app's global momentum since its launch last month, with India emerging as the leading country for its usage. The image-generation model has propelled the Gemini app to the top of free app charts on both the App Store and Google Play in India and globally, according to data from Appfigures.
David Sharon, multimodal generation lead for Gemini Apps at Google DeepMind, stated at a media session this week that India leads in Nano Banana adoption. This surge in engagement has been characterized by millions of Indian users creating uniquely local and creative content. Notable trends include users generating retro portraits inspired by 1990s Bollywood, imagining themselves in period-specific fashion and hairstyles, and producing "AI saree" images featuring vintage-style portraits in traditional Indian attire. Users are also creating selfies in front of iconic global landmarks and experimenting with time-travel effects, transforming objects, and reimagining themselves as retro postage stamps.
India's role extends to amplifying global trends, such as the "figurine trend," which originated in Thailand and Indonesia before gaining international traction after widespread adoption in India, Sharon confirmed. Additionally, Google observed Indian users leveraging its Veo 3 AI video-generation model within the Gemini app to create short videos from old family photographs.
Data from Appfigures indicates that between January and August, the Gemini app recorded an average of 1.9 million monthly downloads in India, representing 16.6% of global monthly downloads and a 55% higher rate than in the U.S. Total downloads in India reached 15.2 million for the year until August, surpassing the U.S.'s 9.8 million. Daily downloads in India dramatically increased following the Nano Banana update, rising from 55,000 on September 1 to a peak of 414,000 on September 13, a 667% increase.
While the U.S. accounts for the largest share of in-app purchases on the Gemini app at an estimated $2.3 million (35%) of global consumer spending, India contributed $95,000 (1.5%). However, India demonstrated an 18% month-over-month growth in spending between September 1 and 16, reaching $13,000. This growth rate significantly exceeded the global increase of 11% and the U.S.'s less than 1% during the same period.
Concerns have emerged regarding users uploading personal photos to AI apps for transformation. Sharon addressed these concerns, stating Google's efforts to fulfill user queries while continuously improving safeguards. Google applies a visible, diamond-shaped watermark to images generated by the Nano Banana model and embeds a hidden marker using its SynthID tool to identify AI-generated content. The company is currently testing a detection platform with trusted experts and plans to launch a consumer-facing version. Sharon acknowledged that Google is "still learning" and that user and expert feedback is crucial for future improvements.
