India Leads Global Adoption of Google’s Nano Banana AI Model for Creative, Retro Portraits Amidst Growing Popularity and Privacy Concerns
The Google-developed AI image generation model, named Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, has ignited a global craze for the Gemini app since its launch last month. In India, however, the model has taken on a life of its own, with local trends and retro portraits going viral. Despite growing privacy and safety concerns, India leads in Gemini 2.5 usage, as reported by David Sharon, lead for multimodal generation at Google DeepMind.
The app’s popularity has propelled it to the top of free app charts on both the App Store and Google Play in India, climbing global app store charts according to Appfigures data. Given India’s massive smartphone market and online population, it is no surprise that the country leads adoption.
What sets India apart is not just the number of users engaging with the AI model but how they do so. Millions are creating unique, local, and often unexpected content using Gemini 2.5. One popular trend involves recreating retro looks inspired by 1990s Bollywood, complete with period-specific fashion, hairstyles, and makeup.
Another trend is generating selfies in front of cityscapes and iconic landmarks such as Big Ben and the U.K.’s vintage telephone booths. Users are also experimenting with the model to transform objects, create time-travel effects, and even reimagine themselves as retro postage stamps.
Some trends, like the figurine trend where users generate miniature versions of themselves, did not originate in India but gained global attention there. Indian users are also utilizing the Veo 3 AI video-generation model on the Gemini app to create short videos from old photos of their ancestors.
Between January and August, the app saw an average of 1.9 million monthly downloads in India – a 55% increase compared to the U.S., accounting for 16.6% of global monthly downloads, per Appfigures data. India’s downloads totaled 15.2 million this year until August, surpassing the U.S.’s 9.8 million downloads during the same period.
Daily downloads significantly surged following the release of the Nano Banana update, with India holding the top spot on both iOS App Store and Google Play since September 10 and 12, respectively, across all categories, according to Appfigures data. However, India does not lead in-app purchases, with the U.S. accounting for the largest share at $2.3 million (35%), while India contributes $95,000 (1.5%).
Regarding privacy and safety concerns, Sharon stated that when a user requests content, the model aims to fulfill that request without assuming the user’s intent. To address data misuse and privacy concerns, Google places a watermark on images generated by the Nano Banana model and embeds a hidden marker using its SynthID tool to identify AI-generated content.
Google is testing a detection platform with trusted testers, researchers, and experts, and plans to launch a consumer-facing version to allow anyone to check whether an image is AI-generated. Sharon emphasized that this is just the beginning, and improvements will be made based on user feedback, press, academia, and expert input.
