Google Gemini App Tops The App Store’s Free Chart
Abner Li reported for 9to5 Google late last week Google’s Gemini app for iOS currently is #1 free app in the App Store. Li posits the company’s “nano banana” image-generation feature is “presumably” the driver behind Gemini’s ascent to the digital mountaintop.
"From the launch on August 26 to September 9, the Gemini app saw 23 million new users. Nano Banana has been used to edit over 500 million images in that period,” he wrote of Gemini’s burgeoning popularity. “This image editing model is a viral hit due to how it maintains character likeness and consistency. You can also upload multiple photos to make new ones, transfer styles, and of course conversational editing.”
Gemini is #2 in Canada and the United Kingdom, according to Li.
I just checked the Top Free chart in the App Store on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. It shows:
Gemini
ChatGPT
Threads
Google
Netflix
DraftKings
X (née Twitter)
Bible Chat
Temu
Google Maps
Although I haven’t used “nano banana” yet, I’m happy to see Gemini top the charts. It’s been firmly entrenched on my first Home Screen for some time now, as I use it nearly every single day. In fact, I used it just last night yo ask about the best way to reheat leftover McDonald’s chicken nuggets. (The answer? Air-fry at 400°F for 3–5 minutes.) As I’ve said repeatedly, what I most love about a chatbot like Gemini—or ChatGPT, for that matter—is how its very nature is a shortcut to conventional web searches. Instead of asking my question and then combing through scores of results, an ostensibly mundane task which can actually have detrimental effects on eye strain and the like, Gemini did the grunt work for me before presenting me with the best answer. What’s more, the AI did so in a messages-like interface that’s less visually cluttered and more easily grokked cognitively. As I often say, to downplay, or otherwise sneer at, chatbots as conduits for sheer laziness—or, in an educational context, cheating—is downright lazy and, frankly, myopic. Of course people must be vigilant about mistakes and hallucinations from AI—hell, Google itself provides a little warning on Gemini’s main screen—but the reality is chatbots have made what once were taxing web searches into something far more accessible. That isn’t at all a trivial use case; on the contrary, it’s a prime example of AI’s profound power—which will inevitably become stronger as time marches on—as an assistive technology for legions of disabled people such as myself.
