Google tests Nano Banana in Messages with banana icon, no launch date

Google is expanding the reach of its Nano Banana image-editing model into more of its core apps, with recent code evidence indicating the tool is being prepared for Google Messages after earlier rollouts to Search and NotebookLM and a planned arrival in Google Photos. Developers who examined a recent Messages build found a banana-shaped icon that appears when a user long-presses an image in a chat, suggesting that image-generation and editing features will be available directly inside conversations. The icon is currently inactive and Google has not announced a launch date.

Nano Banana is part of the Gemini 2.5 Flash Image family and has been widely used since its August debut, with Google saying users have created more than 5 billion images. In the Google Search app, the tool is accessible through Google Lens by tapping a new Create mode marked with a yellow banana icon. From there users can snap or upload a photo and apply text prompts to edit the image or generate new images from scratch in AI Mode. NotebookLM uses Nano Banana to produce context-aware illustrations for video overviews in six visual styles, including Watercolor, Anime, and Heritage, and to power a new Brief...