AI trends have a way of transforming our feeds overnight—whether it was last year’s “Ghiblification” that turned selfies into dreamy anime stills similar to the animation style in Studio Ghibli films, or the Barbie box avatar generator that reimagined people as action figures in their own Barbie-style packaging.
The Nano Banana trend promises to be far quirkier.
This whimsical trend emerged from Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash image generator, playfully nicknamed "Nano Banana".
ALSO READ | What Google’s Nano Banana tells us about the future of AI
The name comes from one of the first viral examples of the trend: a banana reimagined as a tiny, collectible figurine.
Users soon flooded the AI with prompts to create nano-sized, mascot-like action figures of themselves with expressive faces, bright colors, and a toy-like finish.
Much like the Ghiblification and toy box trends, part of the Nano Banana trend's appeal is its blend of nostalgia and novelty.
How to join the Nano Banana trend
Open Gemini 2.5 Flash (or a similar image generator). Other platforms with image generation capabilities like ChatGPT can also be used to produce similar outputs.
Customise prompts to your liking, or stick to the basics. Here is one of Google's official prompts:
“Create a 1/7 scale commercialised figurine of the characters in the picture, in a realistic style, in a real environment. The figurine is placed on a computer desk. The figurine has a round transparent acrylic base, with no text on the base. The content on the computer screen is a 3D modelling process of this figurine. Next to the computer screen is a toy packaging box, designed in a style reminiscent of high-quality collectible figures, printed with original artwork. The packaging features two-dimensional flat illustrations.”
Want to make this yourself? Here's how:
— Google Gemini App (@GeminiApp) September 5, 2025
1. Upload an image at https://t.co/382WL5xkFE
2. Prompt: Create a 1/7 scale commercialized figurine of the characters in the picture, in a realistic style, in a real environment. The figurine is placed on a computer desk. The figurine has…
Don't forget to try experimenting with objects and characters. People have already made Nano versions of animals, food items, furniture, and even celebrities.
Share your pictures with a hashtag, if you like. Hashtags like #NanoBanana and #NanoMascots are spreading fast across TikTok, Instagram, and X.
