Trend archive · September 2025
The Nano Banana 3D figurine trend of September 2025
Updated · Remake the Trend
In late August 2025 Google put a new image model into the Gemini app, known everywhere by its nickname, Nano Banana. Within days people were feeding it a photo and one prompt and getting back themselves (or their pet) as a collectible figurine on a desk, next to its box and a 3D modelling screen. It is history here: we don't make Gemini images, and the closest trends you can make with your own photo are below.
In brief
- When
- Model released 26 August 2025; the figurine posts peaked in early to mid September 2025.
- Made with
- Nano Banana, the nickname of Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, inside the Gemini app.
- How
- One photo plus a long text prompt describing the figurine, its box and the desk scene.
- Cost
- Free: Google said image creation and editing is free for everyone in the Gemini app.
What was the Nano Banana figurine trend?
A photo-to-toy edit. You uploaded a picture of yourself (or a pet) to Gemini and pasted a prompt shared online, and got back a product shot of a collectible figurine of you: a transparent acrylic base, retail-style packaging beside it and a 3D preview on a computer screen behind.
The Gemini team pushed it themselves: on 1 September 2025 the app's account posted the look as "from photo to figurine style in just one prompt". It took off especially in India, where politicians shared their own figurines too, and tutorials passed the same prompt around.
A dated timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 26 Aug 2025 | Google announces the image editing upgrade in the Gemini app, built to keep people and pets looking like themselves from edit to edit. |
| 1 Sep 2025 | The Gemini app's own post shows the figurine look made from a single prompt. |
| 8 Sep 2025 | Josh Woodward, who runs the Gemini app, says it gained 23 million first-time users and that more than 500 million images had been made or edited since the launch (Google's own figures). |
| Mid Sep 2025 | Gemini is reported as the top free iPhone app in the US App Store, ahead of ChatGPT; Appfigures estimates put its September downloads well above August's. |
Why did it work so well?
Google built the update to keep people and pets looking like themselves from one edit to the next, which earlier image tools often failed at when they restyled a photo. A figurine is also a forgiving format: a slightly plastic look is the point, so small errors read as style. And the result was a single shareable picture, made free in under a minute.
Was it safe to upload your photo?
Google said every image made or edited in the Gemini app carries an invisible SynthID watermark and a visible one, so it can be identified as AI-made. What happened to the uploaded photos followed Gemini's own privacy settings; we can't speak for them. Public figures made their own figurines too; here we only accept your own photo, or one of an adult who agreed.
Is the figurine trend still going?
Its peak was September 2025. We didn't measure figurine posts ourselves, so we don't put a number on how many still appear; the toy look lives on in action figure and miniature trends.
What can I make here instead?
Video, not a still. The trends below come closest in spirit: you as a toy or a miniature, from one photo, with a free preview still before you pay anything.
Sources
- Google, "Image editing in Gemini just got a major upgrade" (26 August 2025: launch, likeness, SynthID and visible watermark)
- Google for Developers, "Introducing Gemini 2.5 Flash Image" (the model's official name)
- Business Today, "What is Google Gemini's Nano Banana trend" (12 September 2025: the figurine format and the 1 September post)
- Notebookcheck, "Nano Banana has turned Gemini into App Store's top AI app" (Woodward's 23 million and 500 million figures; Appfigures download estimates)