Image mannequin releases are driving progress for AI cellular apps, producing 6.5x extra downloads than conventional mannequin updates, based on a brand new report from app intelligence supplier Appfigures.
This marks a shift from earlier days, when the discharge of latest models powering the conversational experiences drove extra demand, alongside the brand new options like a voice chat interface.
For occasion, ChatGPT and Gemini every added tens of thousands and thousands of latest downloads after releasing their respective picture models, Appfigures discovered.
For Google’s Gemini, the discharge of its picture mannequin Nano Banana drove a further 22+ million downloads within the 28 days following the introduction of the Gemini 2.5 Flash picture mannequin final August. This launch lifted the app’s downloads by greater than 4x over that interval, the information confirmed.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT added greater than 12 million incremental installs within the 28 days after the introduction of its GPT-4o picture mannequin in March of final 12 months. That’s roughly 4.5x extra downloads than it noticed for its GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, and GPT-5 mannequin releases, Appfigures identified.
Other mannequin releases adopted related developments, although on a smaller scale. Meta AI’s introduction of its AI video feed Vibes added an estimated 2.6 million incremental downloads within the 28 days after its September 2025 launch. (Yes, technically, it is a video mannequin, nevertheless it’s in the end about visible content material, not simply textual content.)
Still, the report cautioned, further downloads don’t all the time translate into elevated cellular income.
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Instead, new picture mannequin releases give folks a purpose to put in the app and check out its improved image-generation capabilities. That doesn’t imply they’ll essentially convert to paying subscribers. For instance, Appfigures famous that Nano Banana drove solely $181,000 in estimated gross client spending through the 28-day window following its launch, though it produced a bigger spike in downloads than ChatGPT’s 4o picture mannequin launch.
Meta AI’s launch of Vibes additionally led to further downloads, however no significant income.
Among the three, solely ChatGPT turned the elevated consideration into precise {dollars}.
OpenAI’s 4o image-generation mannequin led to an estimated $70 million in gross client spending over the 28 days after its launch, in contrast with its prior baseline, Appfigures stated.
The firm additionally checked out DeepSeek in its evaluation, nevertheless it didn’t match the sample.
While DeepSeek R1 drove 28 million downloads after its January 2025 launch, it wasn’t a typical mannequin comparability occasion. This was DeepSeek’s breakout second, when it went from being comparatively unknown to an in a single day sensation because the tech trade discovered concerning the strategies it used to coach its AI models at a fraction of the price of its rivals. This case highlights how curiosity can drive downloads — although on this occasion, the curiosity wasn’t tied to a picture mannequin.
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