With AI tools constantly receiving new updates that improve their generative abilities, it's not easy to get excited about a new model. But Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash, a.k.a. "nano banana," is sending the internet into a frenzy. These are some great examples of what the image editor/generator is capable of – and with little technical knowledge required.

Here we see how Google's model is able to take two still images of characters as a reference, then use two stick figures as input for the scene. The outcome is an anime illustration that matches both the characters and intended action.

yachimat - AI Short Anime

The same method can be used to create animations.

yachimat - AI Short Anime

Here's an example of nano banana being used to transform the buildings of Paris into little isometric tiles just by dragging and dropping photos. Great if you want to make your own Anno-like city sim featuring the French capital.

Emm | scenario.com

Game creation could be one of nano banana's best use cases, thanks to its ability to remove objects from photos and turn them into 3D models.

Deedy

Google talked a lot about nano banana's ability to take several photos and blend them seamlessly into a single image. The example below shows how an incredible thirteen elements can be turned into one picture.

Travis Davids

Creating characters, adding objects, and making scenes can all be done using text prompts, too.

Jerrod Lew

Here's something to try. Draw a red arrow on Google Maps and ask nano banana what it sees.

Simon

Image generators often turn pictures into nightmarish distortions when there are multiple edits and things get complicated. But here's Google's system recursively making an image of someone taking a photo of the previous photo.

No longer will asking for minor changes cause an image to warp beyond recognition. Here's a home that's been switched from red to yellow with a text prompt, made all the more complex by its reflection in the water.

Linus Ekenstam

This one's an especially impressive animation created using Gemini's latest update.

tapehead.lab

Want to know how that new shirt will look on you before making a purchase? Just upload a photo of it alongside one of yourself.

Pietro Schirano

Face-swapping has been around for years, but nano banana's capabilities in this area are particularly impressive.

el.cine

It can even restore and modernize old photos.

David Shapiro

Here are a few more examples of how seamlessly the text prompts work.

DStudioproject

Nano banana is free to users via the Gemini app across the web and mobile. Developers can access it via the Gemini API, Google AI Studio, and Vertex AI platforms.

Masthead image credit: Min Choi