Google’s Gemini now tops the App Store on Nano Banana frenzy. Is ChatGPT in bother?

By Christine Ji

Gemini’s Nano Banana image-editing characteristic has sparked recent curiosity in Google’s generative-AI chatbot, signaling intensifying competitors for ChatGPT

Gemini’s Nano Banana has edited over 500 million photographs since its launch in August.

Over the weekend, the Google Gemini artificial-intelligence assistant shot up the ranks to change into the preferred free iPhone app, due to a brand new image-editing characteristic known as Nano Banana.

It’s the newest signal that competitors between generative-AI choices is heating up, with Gemini bumping ChatGPT all the way down to second place on Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) U.S. App Store.

Since Nano Banana’s launch on Aug 26., Gemini has gained 23 million customers and edited 500 million photographs. And whereas ChatGPT holds the most important market share for generative-AI utilization, Nano Banana might be revealing cracks within the chatbot’s dominance, in response to Richard Windsor, founding father of analysis agency Radio Free Mobile.

Windsor believes Alphabet Inc.’s Google (GOOGL) (GOOG) has an edge in computational images, or utilizing software program and AI to reinforce digital photographs, as the corporate has been creating these capabilities for over a decade. That might give Google the higher hand over OpenAI and Anthropic.

To use Nano Banana, customers can add an authentic picture to Gemini and immediate it to make alterations to the picture. Users may mix photographs collectively. While AI-generated photographs have typically struggled with correct portrayals, Nano Banana’s topic consistency permits folks and objects to take care of their look over a number of enhancing rounds.

The key characteristic that Nano Banana gives is its native image-editing capabilities, “although when it comes to image creation from a text prompt, I would give the edge to OpenAI at the moment,” Windsor wrote on Monday.

“The idea here is that if Google can generate traction within the Gemini app for image manipulation, then its chances of enticing users to use Gemini for other functions improve meaningfully,” Windsor added.

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ChatGPT’s first-mover benefit cemented its standing because the trade incumbent. According to an Evercore ISI survey, 53% of respondents reported utilizing ChatGPT. Gemini got here in second, with 43% of respondents reporting utilization. However, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney identified in a September notice that Gemini customers confirmed excessive satisfaction with their expertise, and ChatGPT has not been in a position to present a “material disparity in the quality of [its] search results,” which means that its lead is weak to disruption.

Nano Banana might be the breakthrough that helps Gemini siphon market share from ChatGPT as Google faucets into an space of experience that different makers of huge language fashions lack, in response to Windsor.

Image creation and manipulation has change into the third most typical use case for chatbots, following basic queries and studying a ability or activity, and as of May 2025, ChatGPT held a slight lead in picture creation amongst customers, in response to Evercore ISI. This signifies that Nano Banana’s robust reception may give Gemini a big edge, utilizing superior image-manipulation options as a gateway to draw customers who then undertake its wider suite of AI instruments.

Should Gemini change into the highest shopper AI utility over ChatGPT, the implications for OpenAI can be “disastrous,” Windsor stated, as OpenAI’s “valuation and outlook depend on becoming the largest consumer AI ecosystem.”

The App Store has change into a battleground for AI chatbots feuding for shopper consideration. Last month, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit in opposition to Apple, alleging that the App Store unfairly favored ChatGPT over xAI’s Grok by artificially rating ChatGPT because the No. 1 recommended app.

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-Christine Ji

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09-15-25 1059ET

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