matsemann parent
Half the time I ask Gemini to generate some image it claims it doesn't have the capability. And in general I've felt it's so hard to actually use the features Google announce? Like, a third of them is in one product, some in another which I can't use, and no idea what or where I should pay to get access. So confusing.
Google have been terrible at every single rollout I’ve ever seen them do.
I see an announcement and it’s a waitlist. It says I can use it right now and I get a 404, or a waitlist, or it doesn’t work in my country. With the AI stuff more often it takes me to a place where I can do something but not what they say, and have zero information about whether I’m using the new thing or not.
Like this is flash image preview, but I have flash which is also a thing so is it the new one or not? The ui hasn’t changed but now it can do pictures so has my flash model moved from a GA model to a preview one? Probably! Or maybe it gets routed? Who knows!
Yeah, in fact the website says "Try it in Gemini" and I'm not sure if I'm already trying it or not - if I choose Gemini 2.5 Flash in the regular Gemini UI, I'm using this?
It’s going to be a messy rollout as usual. The web app (gemini.google.com) shows “Images with Imagen” for me under tools for 2.5 flash but I just tried a few image edits and remixes in the iOS app and it looks like it’s been updated to this model.
Also very confused at this... It told me "I'm unable to create images of specific individuals in different settings." I wish it would at least say somewhere which model we are using at the moment.
It's not in the Gemini app or site at all. You have to use AI Studio or another means. Yes, this is all very confusing on Google's part.
Hmm could the old models generate images before? Had they hooked up imagen or something? I can make images on the Gemini site.
Yes, there was gemini-2.0-flash-preview-image-generation before, which could generate and edit also. But weaker than the new one.
Thanks, I'd not realised that, which means I have no idea if the things I've done outside of the API are this new one or not. That does feel classic google.
Yes, there's a conflict between wanting to just provide the good stuff by default under a unified Gemini brand where you don't have to worry about model names, it just works, versus building hype for a specific model and then being unclear about whether you're using that one or not. The nano-banana name is unique and fun, and got some recognition on social media already, they should just make a page with that heading and a chatbox. But again, that would focus on the new image editor thing only, and they probably want to lure people into their whole ecosystem, to switch to Gemini in general, from competitors like ChatGPT.