Google officially announces Gemini 2.5 Flash Image and the secret of Nano Banana

Google has just made a significant mark in the field of artificial intelligence by officially introducing Gemini 2.5 Flash Image - an advanced image processing model, designed to meet diverse needs from individuals to enterprises. At the same time, the tech community is particularly interested in Nano Banana - the mysterious name that, in fact, was an experimental system quietly existing behind Gemini 2.5 Flash Image all this time.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Image: Official power from Google

According to Google, Gemini 2.5 Flash Image is optimized for complex image understanding and editing tasks, seamlessly supported on AI Studio and Vertex AI. With its multi-image fusion capability (merging multiple images into a single output), the model enables users to handle multi-step scenarios: from creating product illustrations, building game characters, to editing visuals for marketing purposes.

A notable highlight is its response speed. Google asserts that Gemini 2.5 Flash Image can generate and edit images within seconds, far surpassing previous generations. Moreover, the model maintains character and context consistency - a weakness of many AI tools today. This factor makes Gemini 2.5 Flash Image expected to become an “enterprise-standard” tool for e-commerce, marketing, and content creation.

Nano Banana: The mysterious entity behind the tech buzz

Before Gemini 2.5 Flash Image was launched, the AI community had been abuzz about an image generator with “just 1-2 seconds” speed and superior quality, called Nano Banana. This tool initially appeared anonymously on the LMArena platform, where it consistently outperformed well-known models in blind tests. User reports showed that Nano Banana increased e-commerce conversion rates by 34%, while game studios reduced character creation costs from USD 150,000 to under USD 10,000. Such efficiency led the tech world to suspect that this was in fact Google’s experimental product - and now, with the appearance of Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, the connection becomes clearer.

What is Nano Banana?

Nano Banana is an AI image generator, first appearing anonymously on LMArena’s testing platform, specializing in text-based editing rather than traditional image creation. Users can describe the changes they want to make to existing images in simple language - such as “swap the background to a forest” or “make the character smile” - and the model will execute them within 1-2 seconds, while maintaining character consistency and scene integrity. What makes Nano Banana even more attractive is its focus on realistic editing rather than artistic creation. Teams appear to have used it for practical business applications - e-commerce product variants, marketing campaigns, and content creation - with effectiveness reportedly far exceeding conventional AI art tools.

Interesting examples of Nano Banana

• Family race swap - “Swap the couple’s race” demonstrates Nano Banana’s ability to handle sensitive demographic changes while impressively preserving facial expressions, lighting, and scene integrity. Children and the overall layout remain entirely consistent.

  

• Ghibli-style rendering - “Create Ghibli style” transforms the same family photo into the iconic animation style of Studio Ghibli, while still retaining each member’s identity and most of the overall layout. The transformation preserves the warmth and intimacy of the original photo.

  

• Celebrity style transformation - “Dress them up for James Bond” converts Justin and Hailey Bieber from casual streetwear into formal evening attire while maintaining their individuality and natural poses. The combination of lighting and background is flawless.

  

• Body transformation - “Make this guy more muscular” demonstrates remarkable physical transformation, significantly increasing muscle mass while keeping facial features intact. However, this edit also reveals one of Nano Banana’s limitations - stray fur and extra hands in the background, a flaw that the AI struggles with during transformation.

  

• Hairstyle variations - “Give me a nice hairstyle” and “Give me a formal hairstyle with a full mustache” showcase Nano Banana’s ability to generate multiple hairstyle variants from a single base image, while maintaining excellent facial consistency.

  

Key strengths of Nano Banana (and Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)

• Ultra-fast speed: 1-2 seconds for image generation/editing, 5-10x faster than competitors.
• Identity preservation: characters, clothing, lighting, and backgrounds remain consistent across edits.
• Natural language editing: simply type “add forest background” or “turn character into Ghibli style,” and the AI executes automatically.
• Multi-step instruction handling: can simultaneously change background, lighting, and clothing without missing details.
• Commercial-grade quality: good enough for immediate application in marketing, gaming, and e-commerce.

Where can you try Nano Banana?

• Currently, Google has not officially released Nano Banana under this name, but users may encounter it through:
• LMArena blind tests - where Nano Banana appears anonymously in head-to-head challenges.
• nanobanana.ai - a near-official experimental interface, though with unstable access.
• FluxProWeb and Flux AI - some platforms reportedly running leaked versions.
• Unofficial API integrations - plugins within design tools such as Cursor IDE.

The results from Google’s Nano Banana AI image generator are impressive, despite some technical glitches due to its experimental stage. However, these issues may be resolved before its official release. Interested users can experience it via LMArena or nanobanana.ai, and Google’s involvement along with evidence from reputable community discussions suggests the project has a solid foundation. The official launch timeline remains unpredictable, but current capabilities indicate that Nano Banana promises to be a significant step forward in AI-powered image editing.

Quick summary:

Sources: Google Developers Blog, Axios, BGR, Lifewire, Adobe Blog, Times of India, LiveMint, and a compilation from AI community discussions (26-27/08/2025).