Google says 'Nano Banana' drove in over 10 million new users to its Gemini app

What you need to know

• Google is celebrating a few achievements thanks to its addition of nano banana, an image editor, in the Gemini app.
• The company's vice president, Josh Woodward, announced that nano banana has attributed to adding over 10 million new users to the app.
• Nano banana has also already edited over 200 million images, and users turning themselves into figurines seems to rank high amongst the most popular.
• Last week, Google dropped a major update Gemini, bringing this new built-in editor to users, which uses their prompts for unique edits.

Today (Sep 4), Google posted on social media about the achievements it's celebrating within the Gemini app, thanks to nano banana.

In an email to Android Central, Google brought to attention a post on X by its vice president, Josh Woodward, about why they're celebrating nano banana and Gemini. According to Woodward, nano banana, the Gemini app's imaging editing model, is the catalyst behind the 10 million-plus users who've started using its AI services. More than that, Woodward says nano banana has already edited over 200 million images for users in its short life in the app.

The post on X adds, "TPUs red hot. SRE pagers howling."

While there are "many prompts going viral around the world simultaneously," Woodward says, there's one in particular people are enjoying: the figurine prompt.

Google highlights a post by its Gemini app account, which puts a spotlight on users being able to turn a photo of themself, and others, into figurines on a desk. The account also gave an example prompt for users looking to try it out for themselves. Google says Gemini's nano banana can turn a photo of you, your pet, and your family into a unique figurine—box included and all—sitting on a desk.

Going (Nano) Bananas

Google had a major update drop for Gemini's photo editing capabilities, which saw the AI lean on DeepMind. The built-in editor, "nano banana," lets the AI use a user's prompt for better image generation/editing. In short, users can blend photos, mix up designs, and more. For blending, users can tell Gemini to combine two separate photos into one, as if they were always like that.

Users can even let their imagination shine for selfies. With your prompt, Gemini can turn you into a space-walking astronaut, a rock star, or anything else you can think of. Mixing up designs is sort of like a continuous editing session with Gemini. Users can tell Gemini what to add to an empty room (for example) and continue to tweak its design. It's sort of like follow-up questions, but you're simply expanding and adding onto your ideas with the AI.