Google Details ‘Nano Banana’ Image Model For Gemini App, Touts 5 Billion Creations Since August

Oct. 3, 2025 — Google has published a how-to guide for “Nano Banana,” the viral image generation and editing model inside its Gemini app, outlining four ways users and developers can get more precise results as adoption surges. The company says the model has powered more than 5 billion creations since its late-August debut.

In a post dated Oct. 2, Google frames Nano Banana as a natively multimodal system that understands text and images together, enabling targeted edits without disturbing an entire scene. The article positions the feature as a step-up for everyday creators, with Google DeepMind and Gemini teams emphasizing consistency and fine-grained control.

Google’s four practical tips focus on: (1) keeping characters and scenes consistent across iterations; (2) “pixel-perfect” local edits such as swapping colors or fixing text on a sign; (3) exploring new creative directions from simple prompts, including restoring and colorizing old photos; and (4) building image-based apps via Canvas in the Gemini app or Google AI Studio.

The post attributes the work to the team behind Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, also referred to by Google as “nano-banana,” introduced in late August as a state-of-the-art image model designed for targeted transformations and likeness preservation. That earlier technical announcement underscores the model’s ability to maintain subject identity while performing complex edits.

Nicole Brichtova, the product lead for the model, calls the release “a giant quality leap, especially for image editing,” arguing that capabilities once reserved for specialized tools are now broadly accessible. The post also highlights iterative context awareness, so the model “remembers” prior steps in a single conversation, improving edit consistency.

David Sharon, a product manager on the Gemini app, says the team focused on likeness fidelity, moving “from something that looks like your AI distant cousin to images that look like you.” The guidance notes a popular trend of turning a portrait into a figurine with a single prompt, illustrating the model’s consistency across angles and lighting conditions.

For developers, Google points to rapid prototyping paths: Nano Banana is available inside Canvas (within the Gemini app) and in Google AI Studio, where teams can assemble multi-photo templates. Google cites “PictureMe,” a template that generates themed sets like ’80s mall portraits or professional headshots from a single input image.

The guidance arrives amid brisk public uptake and third-party interest. Recent coverage describes growing use of Nano Banana-powered styles and templates, while independent reports say Adobe’s Photoshop beta has begun exposing the model through its Generative Fill interface alongside other image systems, an indication of broader ecosystem experimentation beyond Google’s own apps.

Beyond novelty, Google is promoting Nano Banana as a reliability upgrade for consumer-grade image editing, especially where identity and scene continuity matter (e.g., professional headshots or product mock-ups). If sustained, the combination of likeness preservation, local edits and lightweight app-building could shift routine editing tasks from desktop suites into chat-based workflows.