Google’s nano banana image-generation model, officially known as Mithun 2.5 flash image, has promoted global speed for the Gemini app since its launch last month. But in India, it has taken its own creative life, going viral with retro paintings and local trends – even starts emerging with privacy and security concerns.
According to the Multimodal Generation Lead for Gemini apps in Google Deepmind, according to Bharat Sharon, India has emerged as the number 1 country in terms of use of Nano banana, which spoke in a media session this week. The popularity of the model has also inspired the Gemini app at the top of the free app chart on both app store and Google Play in India. According to AppFigures, the app has also climbed the top of the global app stores.
Given India’s scale-the second largest smartphone market in the world and the second largest online population after China-it is no surprise that the country is a leader in adoption. But Google’s attention is attracting how many people are using nano bananas, how it is: Millions of Indian AI are engaged in ways with AI models that are typically local, highly creative, and in some cases, completely unpredictable.
One of the standout trends is, Indians using Nano Banana appeared to be inspired by the 1990s to re-create retro, imagining how they could appear during that era, the duration-specific fashion, hairstyle and makeup. This trend is local to India, Sharon told reporters.
There is a variation of retro trends that some people are saying “AI saree”, where users generate their own vintage-style portraits wearing traditional Indian dress.
Another trend for India is local, who generate their selfies in front of Big Ben and UK retro telephone booths such as cities and iconic sites.
“We saw a lot in the beginning,” Sharon said.
Techcrunch event
San francisco
,
27-29 October, 2025
Indian users are also experimenting with nano bananas to change the object, create time-journey effects and even re-prepare themselves as retro postage stamps. Others are creating black and white pictures or using models to use their small ourselves to imagine.
Some of these trends did not originate in India, but the country played an important role in helping them attract global attention. There is an example PaganWhere people produce themselves short versions, often place them in front of the computer screen. Sharon said that the trend emerged first in Thailand, spread to Indonesia, and became global after receiving traction in India.
In addition to Nano Banana, Google has seen a trend where Indian users are using their VO3A video-generation models on the Gemini app to make small videos from their grandparents and great-grandfather’s old photos.
All this has helped to run Gemini’s popularity on both app store and Google Play in India. Between January and August, the app saw an average of 1.9 million monthly downloads in the country – about 55% more than the US – accounting for 16.6% of the global monthly download, shared with Techcrunch, exclusively with Techcrunch.
India’s downloads are 15.2 million till August this year; On the other hand, the US has downloaded 9.8 million so far this year, data per appFigures.
Daily Downloads of the Mithun app in India increased significantly after the release of Nano Banana updates, both of them started with 55,000 installs in the app stores on 1 September. Download reached 414,000 on September 13 – an increase of 667% – with Gemini, the top overall place on the iOS app store since September 10 and on the Google Play from September 12, in all categories, in all categories, AppFIGURES data shows include data shows.
Despite being a leader in India download, the country does not top the in-app purchasing on the Mithun app, which has produced an estimated $ 6.4 million in global consumer expenses on iOS since launch. The largest share of America is $ 2.3 million (35%), while India contributes $ 95,000 (1.5%). However, India recorded an increase of 18% months in spending, during the same period 11% of the global growth reached $ 13,000 between 1 and 16 September. It puts India seven percent of the global rate and more than 17 points from the US, where the increase was less than 1%.
Said that, with other AI apps, there are concerns about users that they are worried about users uploading individual photos to change their appearance.
“When a user tells us to complete his query, we do our best to complete that query. We don’t believe what the user’s intention is,” Sharon said that Google said that Google is working with data misuse and privacy concerns between users in Google India and other top markets. “We really tried to improve it, and we have improved to be bold and fulfill your request.”
Google Nano holds a visible, diamond -shaped watermark on images generated by the model of banana and also embed a hidden marker using it. Synthesis equipment To identify AI-related material. Syntid allows Google to find out and flagged whether an image was created using its model.
Sharon told reporters that Google is testing an identity platform with reliable examiners, researchers and other experts. The company has also planned to launch a consumer-affected version that will allow anyone to check whether an image is AI-Janit.
“It’s still a day, and we are still learning, and we are learning together. There are things that we may need to improve in the future, and it is really your response from users, press, academics and experts that help us improve,” Sharon said.
