India drives Google’s Nano Banana frenzy, helps Gemini top App Store downloads

Image Source: Unsplash

Google's Nano Banana image-generation model, officially called Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, is surging in popularity worldwide, with India emerging as its biggest market.

David Sharon, multimodal generation lead for Gemini Apps at Google DeepMind, told TechCrunch that India is the No. 1 country for Nano Banana usage, fueling Gemini's rise to the top of free app charts on both the App Store and Google Play.

"Millions of Indians are engaging with the AI model in ways that are uniquely local, highly creative, and in some cases, completely unexpected," Sharon said. 

One viral trend sees users re-creating 1990s Bollywood-inspired retro portraits, while others experiment with "AI saree" looks, retro postage stamps, and even encounters with their younger selves.

India accounted for 15.2 million downloads of Gemini between January and August — 55 per cent more than the US, which logged 9.8 million — according to Appfigures data shared with TechCrunch.

Sharon noted India also played a key role in spreading global trends, such as the figurine challenge that began in Thailand but gained worldwide traction after going viral in India.

Despite Android being Google's own platform, ChatGPT remains the No. 1 app on Google Play in the US, though Gemini has jumped to the No. 2 spot as of this week.