Remember when OpenAI’s GPT-powered Ghibli-style image generator went viral, sending ChatGPT to the top of the Apple App Store charts just weeks ago? Now, Google Gemini has taken the spotlight, surpassing the trend with its introduced Nano-Banana tool.
Google’s Gemini is making waves in households nationwide, riding the viral “Nano-Banana” trend and redefining AI creativity. The platform is quickly edging out ChatGPT’s Ghibli-style image generation, which transformed photos into dreamy, hand-drawn illustrations inspired by Studio Ghibli films.
Unlike Ghibli-style AI, which prioritized nostalgic, anime-like aesthetics over realism, Gemini blends imaginative artistry with accessibility, turning everyday users into creators and cementing its place in daily digital life.
Riding the viral “Nano-Banana” craze, Google Gemini is turning everyday photos into polished 3D collectible-style portraits. The AI keeps faces, pets, and details true to life while letting users swap backgrounds, merge images, or tweak outfits, all without losing the subject’s identity. Gemini’s mix of realism and playful creativity is making it a must-try in households everywhere.
Across the internet, users are enthusiastically swapping prompts to create their own Nano-Banana-style portraits, turning the trend into a collaborative creative phenomenon. A surge of digital creators has flooded social media platforms like Threads, Instagram, Facebook experimenting with the latest prompts and sharing their results with followers. Many are driving engagement by inviting their audiences to comment prompt, turning each post into an interactive one and fueling a viral cycle of experimentation, sharing, and community participation.
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The craze has propelled Google’s Gemini AI chatbot app to the top of the Apple App Store charts. In the U.S., the iPhone version now ranks as the number one free app, according to 9to5Google, while it holds the second spot in both Canada and the United Kingdom, reflecting its growing global appeal. Josh Woodward wrote on X, giving the insights that over 200 million images edited, over 10 million people are new to Gemini earlier in September.
The Nano-Banana tool, powered by Google’s Gemini Nano model, first caught the internet’s eye with its quirky ability to turn selfies into toy-like 3D figurines, quickly going viral across social media. Soon, users began experimenting with vintage saree portraits, effectively replacing the once-popular Ghibli-style images generated by GPT. Those dreamy hand-drawn illustrations now feel like a thing of the past, as the online community immerses itself in the Nano-Banana craze, creating 3D figures, dressing subjects in nostalgic attire, and framing them in Polaroid-style compositions, all in a bid to ride the trend and showcase their creativity.
Gemini is positioning itself as a serious challenger to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, aiming to shake up the long-standing dominance of the AI chatbot giant. Fueled by the viral Nano-Banana trend, the app is attracting a surge of users and creators, proving how social media–driven hype can rapidly turn a novelty into a mainstream hit. Earlier this year, ChatGPT saw a similar spike with its Ghibli-style image generation. Now, Gemini is following a similar path, leveraging the Nano-Banana trend to position itself as a credible alternative to ChatGPT and signaling a shift in how audiences engage with AI applications.
Google has confirmed that the feature is completely free and available to all users via the Gemini app. “Image creation and editing is free for everyone in the Gemini app. Give it a try and share your results below or tag us. We’ll add some examples from our community to the thread! ⬇️ #nanobanana,” the Google Gemini App posted on X. Users can generate or edit up to 100 images per day at no cost, while Gemini AI Pro or Ultra subscribers can create or modify up to 1,000 images daily, unlocking the full potential of the Nano-Banana trend.
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While users are clearly enjoying the viral Nano-Banana craze, some observers are raising a cautionary note: are these lighthearted creative experiments truly harmless, or could they inadvertently put personal data at risk?
A report by Mint notes that while tech giants like Google and OpenAI have safeguards in place to protect user data, overall security also depends on how users manage their uploads and who gains access to them.
Google’s Nano-Banana tool adds an extra layer of protection through SynthID, an invisible watermark combined with metadata that flags the image as AI-generated. Every image created or edited with Gemini 2.5 Flash Image carries this watermark, promoting accountability and transparency. Though imperceptible to the naked eye, SynthID can be detected using specialized tools, allowing users to verify whether an image was created or modified by AI and trace its origins for authenticity.
However, Mint, referencing Tatler Asia, points out that the SynthID detection tool is not publicly accessible, leaving regular users without a way to independently verify AI-generated content. This gap calls into question how effective the system can be in real-world, everyday use.
The bigger picture is that the Google appears to have closely observed OpenAI’s marketing success with the viral Ghibli-style images and seized the opportunity to capture the next wave of AI creativity. By introducing the Nano-Banana trend, it not only made Gemini accessible to a wider audience but also tapped into the fast-moving nature of online trends. Social media users have already begun sharing memes highlighting how quickly they transitioned from GPT to Gemini, underlining the speed at which one viral moment can overshadow another.
This strategic move underscores a key lesson in the digital age: trends are fleeting, attention is currency, and a single well-timed initiative can make a product/tool to worldwide relevance almost overnight. In today’s social media-driven ecosystem, one smart move can make a brand or tool the focus of global attention in a matter of days.