Google unveiled a successor to its viral Nano Banana image generation model on Thursday, touting faster performance, as the search engine pushes to attract more users to its AI tools.
The model, called Nano Banana 2, is being rolled out across products including the Gemini app, AI Mode and Lens features on Search and Flow, its AI-powered video tool, the Alphabet-owned company said.
The launch is Google’s latest in a series of moves that have propelled the company to the forefront of the AI race, helping it better compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT after suffering a series of initial embarrassments. The success has fueled a 47% rise in the stock over the past six months.
Google launched the Nano Banana AI photo editor in August, which quickly became a viral sensation, attracting 13 million first-time users to the Gemini app in just four days in September. By mid-October, it had generated more than 5 billion images.
The tech giant followed that up with the release of the upgraded Nano Banana Pro in November.
Nano Banana 2 leans on Gemini’s faster and cheaper models known as Flash, which allow faster image generation and editing, Google said, adding that it also has better instruction-following capabilities and delivers sharper detail.
In November, Google released its Gemini 3 AI model, the success of which prompted rival OpenAI to issue an internal “code red” to pressure teams to accelerate development.
Gemini 3 has significantly increased user engagement, helping the Gemini app capture more than 750 million monthly active users by the end of December.
