Google’s AI platform, Gemini, has overtaken OpenAI’s ChatGPT for the first time, following the viral success of its new image editing model, Nano Banana.
Officially named Gemini 2.5 Flash Image Generation, the tool has been used over 500 million times and has significantly boosted Gemini’s user base and popularity across major markets.
Gemini has reached the number one spot on app store charts in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany, while ChatGPT has slipped to second position. In July alone, Gemini attracted 450 million monthly users, a figure that has continued to grow rapidly.
The Nano Banana feature has gained notable popularity among iPhone users, propelling Gemini to the top of Apple’s free app charts in the US and UK. It has now surpassed not just ChatGPT, but also other major apps like Threads and Temu.
Google introduced the Gemini update on August 26, calling it state-of-the-art and claiming it offers capabilities still challenging for competing platforms. With Nano Banana, users can maintain a consistent character across multiple images, merge various images, and apply edits using specific language prompts.
Experts note that Nano Banana’s standout feature is its ability to realistically edit existing images rather than generating entirely new ones.
Images created with Nano Banana have been widely shared across social platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, with millions of views recorded over the past two weeks.
To address concerns around misinformation, Google includes both visible and hidden watermarks in every image generated through Gemini, enabling traceability online.
