Google’s Gemini AI chatbot app has climbed to the No. 1 spot on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in India, just days after the company’s new Nano Banana AI image-editing model triggered a viral wave of AI-generated pictures across social media.
The surge is not limited to India. The Gemini app has also become the top free app on the US App Store and is currently holding the second position in Canada and the United Kingdom, according to industry trackers.
The app’s rapid climb is closely tied to the popularity of the Nano Banana AI model, which has been used to edit more than 500 million images since its debut last month. Between August 26 and September 9, the Gemini app reportedly gained over 23 million new users.
Gemini is one of the very few AI chatbot apps to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has dominated app store rankings worldwide. Earlier this year, ChatGPT saw a similar wave of downloads after its image-generation feature set off the widely shared “Ghibli AI” trend. The latest surge shows how viral online trends continue to drive adoption of AI-powered platforms.
The Nano Banana feature lets users upload multiple photos and transform them into new images styled in different ways or even edited to include popular celebrities. Each user can generate or edit up to 100 images daily for free, while Gemini AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can process up to 1,000 images.
Although Gemini already supported AI image generation, results were often inconsistent. The new model, officially called Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, was developed by Google’s DeepMind unit and is now at the centre of the viral trend.
To try Nano Banana, users can log in through Google AI Studio or directly within the Gemini app. A banner at the top highlights the new feature: “NEW! Try image editing with our best image model, Nano Banana.” By uploading an image and entering a prompt, users receive edited results in just a few seconds.
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