Google’s Nano Nano Nano Nano -image model, officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, has fueled the global momentum for the Gemini application since launching last month. But in India, it has taken on its own creative life, with retro portraits and local tendencies become viral – even when there are concerns about privacy and security.
India has emerged as the first country in terms of Nano Banana’s use, according to David Sharon, Multimodal Generation Lead for Google Deepmind applications, who spoke at a media session this week. The popularity of the model has also promoted the Gemini app at the top of free apps on both the App Store and Google Play in India. The app also went to the top of the Global App stores, according to Appfigures.
Given the scale of India-the second largest smartphone market in the world and the second largest population on the internet after China-it is not surprising that the country is leading to adoption. But what attracts Google’s attention is not just how many people use Nano Banana are: Millions of Indians deal with the AI model in ways that are unique local, extremely creative and in some cases completely unexpected.
One of the separate trends is the Indians who use Nano Banana to recreate retro appearance of inspired Bollywood inspired since the 1990s, imagining how they could appear during this season, full with a specific fashion period, hairstyles and makeup. This trend is local in India, Sharon told reporters.
A variant of the retro trend is what some call “Ai Saree”, where users create vintage-style portraits of themselves wear traditional Indian clothing.
Another local trend in India is the people who create themselves in front of urban landscapes and virtual milestones, such as Big Ben and the UK’s retro telephones.
“We saw a lot of them at first,” Sharon said.
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Indian users are also experimenting with Nano Banana to convert objects, create effects with the journey and even reappear as retro stamps. Others create black and white portraits or use the model to portray meetings with their younger themselves.
Some of these trends did not come from India, but the country played a key role in helping them gain worldwide attention. An example is the figurineWhere people produce tiny versions of themselves, often placing them in front of a computer screen. The trend first emerged in Thailand, spread to Indonesia and became worldwide after an attraction in India, Sharon said.
In addition to Nano Banana, Google has noticed a trend where Indian users use the VEO 3 AI Video-Generation model in the Gemini app to create short videos of old photos of their grandparents and pre-English.
All of this has helped to lead the popularity of Gemini to both the App Store and the Google Play in India. Between January and August, the application saw an average of 1.9 million monthly downloads in the country – about 55% higher than in the US – representing 16.6% of global monthly downloads, per appfigures that share exclusively with Techcrunch.
India’s shootings amounted to 15.2 million this year until August. The US, on the other hand, had 9.8 million shots so far this year, according to Appfigures.
Daily downloads of the Gemini application in India increased significantly after the release of the Nano Banana update, starting on September 1st with 55,000 facilities in both applications. Downloads culminated at 414,000 on September 13 – an increase of 667% – with Gemini holding the top overall point in the iOS App Store from September 10 and Google Play from September 12, including all categories, showing appfigures data.
Despite India that leads to shooting, the country does not have top -end in -app markets in the Gemini application, which has created about $ 6.4 million in global consumer spending for iOS since starting, per Appigures. The US represents the largest share of $ 2.3 million (35%), while India contributes $ 95,000 ($ 1.5%). However, India posted a record of 18% in a monthly monthly increase in spending, reaching $ 13,000 between September 1 and 16-compared to a worldwide increase of 11% during the same period. This sets India seven percentage points above the world interest rate and over 17 points ahead of the US, where growth was below 1%.
Toping this, as with other AI applications, there are concerns for users who upload personal photos to Gemini to transform their appearance.
“When a user asks us to fulfill his query, we do our best to fulfill this question. We do not try to assume what the user’s intention is,” Sharon said, while addressing questions about how Google is involved in data abuse and concerns between users. “We really tried to improve this and improved this to be bold and fulfill your request.”
Google places a visible, diamond watermark in images produced by Nano Banana model and also incorporates a hidden index using the Synthetic tool To determine the content produced by AI. Synthid allows Google to detect and mark if a picture was created using its models.
Sharon told reporters that Google is testing a detection platform with reliable testers, researchers and other experts. The company also plans to launch a version that sees consumers who would allow anyone to check if a picture is created.
“This is still the first day and we are still learning and learning together. There are things we may need to improve in the future and are really your comments from users, the press, the academic world and the experts that help us improve,” Sharon said.
