23 million new users, half a billion images: How Nano Banana led to Google finally having its viral AI moment

Gemini Nano Banana

Google’s Gemini app is suddenly everywhere — and it’s not because of text answers or productivity hacks. The credit goes to Nano Banana, an AI image editor launched in late August that has delivered Google its long-sought viral AI moment. ChatGPT has had many, including the Ghibli image art. Even DeepSeek created quite a stir at its launch. But Google? Not untill Nano Banana landed.

Nano Banana lets you drop in an image and tell Gemini what to tweak. Think redecorating your living room, trying out a retro beehive hairstyle, or even seeing how you’ll age in a decade. You can merge multiple photos, too, and stitch the results into a short video. It’s all built directly into Gemini, making the experience seamless and quick compared to many other AI image tools.

The simplicity has fuelled a stampede. Josh Woodward, VP of Gemini and Google Labs, revealed that the app added 23 million users in just two weeks after Nano Banana’s launch. In the same period, Gemini processed half a billion image transformations. The demand has been so intense that Google has had to impose temporary usage limits to keep the service running.

On the App Store charts, the effect is striking: Gemini has overtaken OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the top free app in the US, UK, Canada, France, Australia, Germany, and Italy. In India, Woodward said the feature has “been found” by users, suggesting adoption there is also surging.

What’s driving this frenzy is one trend in particular — lifelike 3D figurines. With the right prompt, users can turn themselves, or their pets, into desktop toy-like models, complete with boxes and digital wireframes as if they were manufactured collectibles. The prompts are detailed, but easy-to-replicate versions are already circulating online. Google itself has encouraged the trend by sharing examples.

In practice, the tool isn’t flawless. Sometimes it ignores prompts or delivers an unchanged photo. But when it works, the results are surprisingly faithful: the dolls still look recognisably like their human counterparts, sidestepping the “creepy AI face” problem that plagues other editors. That balance — whimsical edits without uncanny distortions — may explain why Nano Banana has struck such a chord.

For years, Google has struggled to shake off the sense that its AI was playing catch-up. With Gemini’s Nano Banana, it finally has a viral hit of its own.