Image AI models now drive app growth, beating chatbot upgrades | TechCrunch
Image model releases are driving growth for AI mobile apps, generating 6.5x more downloads than traditional model updates, according to a new report from app intelligence provider Appfigures.
For instance, ChatGPT and Gemini each added tens of millions of new downloads after releasing their respective image models, Appfigures found.
For Google’s Gemini, the release of its image model Nano Banana drove an additional 22+ million downloads in the 28 days following the introduction of the Gemini 2.5 Flash image model last August. This launch lifted the app’s downloads by more than 4x over that period, the data showed.
Image Credits:Appfigures
Meanwhile, ChatGPT added more than 12 million incremental installs in the 28 days after the introduction of its GPT-4o image model in March of last year. That’s roughly 4.5x more downloads than it saw for its GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, and GPT-5 model releases, Appfigures pointed out.
Other model releases followed similar trends, though on a smaller scale. Meta AI’s introduction of its AI video feed Vibes added an estimated 2.6 million incremental downloads in the 28 days after its September 2025 release. (Yes, technically, this is a video model, but it’s ultimately about visual content, not just text.)
Image Credits:Appfigures
Still, the report cautioned, additional downloads don’t always translate into increased mobile revenue.
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Instead, new image model releases give people a reason to install the app and try out its improved image-generation capabilities. That doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily convert to paying subscribers. For example, Appfigures noted that Nano Banana drove only $181,000 in estimated gross consumer spending during the 28-day window following its release, even though it produced a larger spike in downloads than ChatGPT’s 4o image model release.
Meta AI’s launch of Vibes also led to additional downloads, but no meaningful revenue.
Among the three, only ChatGPT turned the increased attention into actual dollars.
OpenAI’s 4o image-generation model led to an estimated $70 million in gross consumer spending over the 28 days after its launch, compared with its prior baseline, Appfigures said.
Image Credits:Appfigures
The company also looked at DeepSeek in its analysis, but it didn’t fit the pattern.
While DeepSeek R1 drove 28 million downloads after its January 2025 release, it wasn’t a typical model comparison event. This was DeepSeek’s breakout moment, when it went from being relatively unknown to an overnight sensation as the tech industry learned about the techniques it used to train its AI models at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. This case highlights how curiosity can drive downloads — though in this instance, the interest wasn’t tied to an image model.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Image model releases are driving growth for AI mobile apps, generating 6.5x more downloads than traditional model updates, according to a new report from app intelligence provider Appfigures.
This marks a shift from earlier days, when the release of new models powering the conversational experiences drove more demand, alongside the new features like a voice chat interface.
For instance, ChatGPT and Gemini each added tens of millions of new downloads after releasing their respective image models, Appfigures found.
For Google’s Gemini, the release of its image model Nano Banana drove an additional 22+ million downloads in the 28 days following the introduction of the Gemini 2.5 Flash image model last August. This launch lifted the app’s downloads by more than 4x over that period, the data showed.
Image Credits:Appfigures
Meanwhile, ChatGPT added more than 12 million incremental installs in the 28 days after the introduction of its GPT-4o image model in March of last year. That’s roughly 4.5x more downloads than it saw for its GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, and GPT-5 model releases, Appfigures pointed out.
Other model releases followed similar trends, though on a smaller scale. Meta AI’s introduction of its AI video feed Vibes added an estimated 2.6 million incremental downloads in the 28 days after its September 2025 release. (Yes, technically, this is a video model, but it’s ultimately about visual content, not just text.)
Image Credits:Appfigures
Still, the report cautioned, additional downloads don’t always translate into increased mobile revenue.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, CA | October 13-15, 2026
Instead, new image model releases give people a reason to install the app and try out its improved image-generation capabilities. That doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily convert to paying subscribers. For example, Appfigures noted that Nano Banana drove only $181,000 in estimated gross consumer spending during the 28-day window following its release, even though it produced a larger spike in downloads than ChatGPT’s 4o image model release.
Meta AI’s launch of Vibes also led to additional downloads, but no meaningful revenue.
Among the three, only ChatGPT turned the increased attention into actual dollars.
OpenAI’s 4o image-generation model led to an estimated $70 million in gross consumer spending over the 28 days after its launch, compared with its prior baseline, Appfigures said.
Image Credits:Appfigures
The company also looked at DeepSeek in its analysis, but it didn’t fit the pattern.
While DeepSeek R1 drove 28 million downloads after its January 2025 release, it wasn’t a typical model comparison event. This was DeepSeek’s breakout moment, when it went from being relatively unknown to an overnight sensation as the tech industry learned about the techniques it used to train its AI models at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. This case highlights how curiosity can drive downloads — though in this instance, the interest wasn’t tied to an image model.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
The company calls the suite of tools “Rules Hub,” and the tools let mods decide what rules should be automatically enforced and what should happen when a rule is triggered. Rules Hub relies on LLMs to evaluate “whether a post or comment matches the intent of a rule,” which “allows Rules Hub to better handle nuance, natural language, and edge cases while preserving moderator control,” Reddit says in a blog post. Right now, many subreddits use tools from a feature called Automoderator (aka Automod) to take action on rules, but Automod’s tools “depend on exact keyword and pattern matching.”
Reddit says that Rules Hub has been in testing for “the past few months” with “new and experienced moderators from over 700 communities, including members of Reddit’s Mod Council Network.” That test of Rules Hub is now expanding to “all newly created communities” and will be “widely available” at some point later in 2026.
Rules Hub will be optional for new communities, spokesperson Rosa Kim tells The Verge. However, it does sound as if Reddit plans to retire Automod’s enforcement features down the line: In its post, Reddit says that “Looking ahead, we believe Rules Hub, together with newer systems like Post & Comment Guidance and Safety Filters, can eventually replace many of the enforcement workflows that communities rely on from Automod,” Reddit says in its post.
The updated mod tools are just one of a few big platform announcements Reddit is making on Wednesday. The company is also planning big changes that will affect developers: It’s going to require new third-party apps to use the developer platform instead of the API.
“We envision a future where all good, trusted automation on Reddit runs within an ecosystem that allows us to offer support and enforce our policies consistently,” Reddit says. “To achieve this, we will continue supporting limited public API access, but we will gradually restrict new requests and require third-party apps to transition to and operate on Reddit’s Developer Platform.”
The shift follows Reddit’s major API changes in 2023 that it put in place to get AI companies to pony up for Reddit’s data but also caused widespread backlash in part because they forced many beloved Reddit apps to shut down. (Currently, if a developer wants to make a Reddit mobile app, they have to get permission from Reddit to get public API exemptions, and that will continue to be the case, Kim says.) Reddit doesn’t have a “set timeline” yet for requiring the developer platform, but the company will give “give the community ample notice” and provide a clear timeline, Kim says. The upcoming change will affect “all API apps except the ones we explicitly grant exceptions to,” according to Kim.
Reddit is also saying today that it’s planning more changes to old Reddit as part of its ongoing efforts to fight unauthorized scraping of its content. Those efforts already include blocking Reddit results from search engines that don’t pay, suing Anthropic and Perplexity, and blocking the Internet Archive to stop AI companies from using it to scrape data, and in June, the company announced that people would have to be logged in if they wanted to use the old Reddit interface.
Reddit doesn’t specify what the changes to old Reddit will be, but Kim says the company is “exploring different options” and notes that “in the short term we will limit access to logged-in users and migrate critical bots and moderator workflows.”
The company calls the suite of tools “Rules Hub,” and the tools let mods decide what rules should be automatically enforced and what should happen when a rule is triggered. Rules Hub relies on LLMs to evaluate “whether a post or comment matches the intent of a rule,” which “allows Rules Hub to better handle nuance, natural language, and edge cases while preserving moderator control,” Reddit says in a blog post. Right now, many subreddits use tools from a feature called Automoderator (aka Automod) to take action on rules, but Automod’s tools “depend on exact keyword and pattern matching.”
Reddit says that Rules Hub has been in testing for “the past few months” with “new and experienced moderators from over 700 communities, including members of Reddit’s Mod Council Network.” That test of Rules Hub is now expanding to “all newly created communities” and will be “widely available” at some point later in 2026.
Rules Hub will be optional for new communities, spokesperson Rosa Kim tells The Verge. However, it does sound as if Reddit plans to retire Automod’s enforcement features down the line: In its post, Reddit says that “Looking ahead, we believe Rules Hub, together with newer systems like Post & Comment Guidance and Safety Filters, can eventually replace many of the enforcement workflows that communities rely on from Automod,” Reddit says in its post.
The updated mod tools are just one of a few big platform announcements Reddit is making on Wednesday. The company is also planning big changes that will affect developers: It’s going to require new third-party apps to use the developer platform instead of the API.
“We envision a future where all good, trusted automation on Reddit runs within an ecosystem that allows us to offer support and enforce our policies consistently,” Reddit says. “To achieve this, we will continue supporting limited public API access, but we will gradually restrict new requests and require third-party apps to transition to and operate on Reddit’s Developer Platform.”
The shift follows Reddit’s major API changes in 2023 that it put in place to get AI companies to pony up for Reddit’s data but also caused widespread backlash in part because they forced many beloved Reddit apps to shut down. (Currently, if a developer wants to make a Reddit mobile app, they have to get permission from Reddit to get public API exemptions, and that will continue to be the case, Kim says.) Reddit doesn’t have a “set timeline” yet for requiring the developer platform, but the company will give “give the community ample notice” and provide a clear timeline, Kim says. The upcoming change will affect “all API apps except the ones we explicitly grant exceptions to,” according to Kim.
Reddit is also saying today that it’s planning more changes to old Reddit as part of its ongoing efforts to fight unauthorized scraping of its content. Those efforts already include blocking Reddit results from search engines that don’t pay, suing Anthropic and Perplexity, and blocking the Internet Archive to stop AI companies from using it to scrape data, and in June, the company announced that people would have to be logged in if they wanted to use the old Reddit interface.
Reddit doesn’t specify what the changes to old Reddit will be, but Kim says the company is “exploring different options” and notes that “in the short term we will limit access to logged-in users and migrate critical bots and moderator workflows.”
#Reddit #introducing #moderatorAI,News,Reddit,Tech">Reddit is introducing a new moderator: AI
Reddit is enlisting AI to help moderate new subreddits — and eventually the rest of site. The company is introducing automated moderation tools that rely on LLMs to help mods manage their communities, and it’s expanding who can use those tools today ahead of a full launch later this year.
The company calls the suite of tools “Rules Hub,” and the tools let mods decide what rules should be automatically enforced and what should happen when a rule is triggered. Rules Hub relies on LLMs to evaluate “whether a post or comment matches the intent of a rule,” which “allows Rules Hub to better handle nuance, natural language, and edge cases while preserving moderator control,” Reddit says in a blog post. Right now, many subreddits use tools from a feature called Automoderator (aka Automod) to take action on rules, but Automod’s tools “depend on exact keyword and pattern matching.”
Reddit says that Rules Hub has been in testing for “the past few months” with “new and experienced moderators from over 700 communities, including members of Reddit’s Mod Council Network.” That test of Rules Hub is now expanding to “all newly created communities” and will be “widely available” at some point later in 2026.
Rules Hub will be optional for new communities, spokesperson Rosa Kim tells The Verge. However, it does sound as if Reddit plans to retire Automod’s enforcement features down the line: In its post, Reddit says that “Looking ahead, we believe Rules Hub, together with newer systems like Post & Comment Guidance and Safety Filters, can eventually replace many of the enforcement workflows that communities rely on from Automod,” Reddit says in its post.
The updated mod tools are just one of a few big platform announcements Reddit is making on Wednesday. The company is also planning big changes that will affect developers: It’s going to require new third-party apps to use the developer platform instead of the API.
“We envision a future where all good, trusted automation on Reddit runs within an ecosystem that allows us to offer support and enforce our policies consistently,” Reddit says. “To achieve this, we will continue supporting limited public API access, but we will gradually restrict new requests and require third-party apps to transition to and operate on Reddit’s Developer Platform.”
The shift follows Reddit’s major API changes in 2023 that it put in place to get AI companies to pony up for Reddit’s data but also caused widespread backlash in part because they forced many beloved Reddit apps to shut down. (Currently, if a developer wants to make a Reddit mobile app, they have to get permission from Reddit to get public API exemptions, and that will continue to be the case, Kim says.) Reddit doesn’t have a “set timeline” yet for requiring the developer platform, but the company will give “give the community ample notice” and provide a clear timeline, Kim says. The upcoming change will affect “all API apps except the ones we explicitly grant exceptions to,” according to Kim.
Reddit is also saying today that it’s planning more changes to old Reddit as part of its ongoing efforts to fight unauthorized scraping of its content. Those efforts already include blocking Reddit results from search engines that don’t pay, suing Anthropic and Perplexity, and blocking the Internet Archive to stop AI companies from using it to scrape data, and in June, the company announced that people would have to be logged in if they wanted to use the old Reddit interface.
Reddit doesn’t specify what the changes to old Reddit will be, but Kim says the company is “exploring different options” and notes that “in the short term we will limit access to logged-in users and migrate critical bots and moderator workflows.”
Ukraine-based app developer MacPaw has partnered up with Liquid AI to power its products with locally hosted AI models, and eventually make the tech stack available to developers. The company is also preparing its SetApp app store for AI apps with credit-based plans for users.
MacPaw is currently working on its AI assistant Eney, which it unveiled last year, and now plans to build a locally hosted version, for which it has roped in Liquid AI to develop an on-device inference system called Elix as well as a local memory system.
“Before training our models, we select an architecture that is different and tailored to the hardware. That allows us to really have the most efficient version of intelligence that runs directly on the device, with benefits like privacy and security,” Liquid AI’s co-founder and CEO Ramin Hasani told TechCrunch.
MacPaw’s CEO Oleksandr Kosovan said locally hosted AI models will also give users the ability to run assistants and agentic workflows offline.
Notably, Apple already provides its own local models to developers. But Hasani maintains that Liquid AI’s models focus on performance for different capabilities.
“We are also building a customization stack around models. This means that with user input, the models can use the data and improve. We want our models to be adaptable and become more intelligent over time,” Hasani said.
MacPaw plans to focus more on AI apps for its subscription-based app store, SetApp, which has over 150,000 paying users.
Once it locks in the local processing architecture with Liquid AI, MacPaw wants to make the tech available to developers so they can use on-device inference with their apps. Kosovan said the platform will also provide access to other cloud models from companies like Google, acting as a one-stop shop for developers.
MacPaw is already experimenting with credit-based pricing for the app store, where users can perform a certain number of AI operations based on the credits they have and the complexity of the task.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Ukraine-based app developer MacPaw has partnered up with Liquid AI to power its products with locally hosted AI models, and eventually make the tech stack available to developers. The company is also preparing its SetApp app store for AI apps with credit-based plans for users.
MacPaw is currently working on its AI assistant Eney, which it unveiled last year, and now plans to build a locally hosted version, for which it has roped in Liquid AI to develop an on-device inference system called Elix as well as a local memory system.
“Before training our models, we select an architecture that is different and tailored to the hardware. That allows us to really have the most efficient version of intelligence that runs directly on the device, with benefits like privacy and security,” Liquid AI’s co-founder and CEO Ramin Hasani told TechCrunch.
MacPaw’s CEO Oleksandr Kosovan said locally hosted AI models will also give users the ability to run assistants and agentic workflows offline.
Notably, Apple already provides its own local models to developers. But Hasani maintains that Liquid AI’s models focus on performance for different capabilities.
“We are also building a customization stack around models. This means that with user input, the models can use the data and improve. We want our models to be adaptable and become more intelligent over time,” Hasani said.
MacPaw plans to focus more on AI apps for its subscription-based app store, SetApp, which has over 150,000 paying users.
Once it locks in the local processing architecture with Liquid AI, MacPaw wants to make the tech available to developers so they can use on-device inference with their apps. Kosovan said the platform will also provide access to other cloud models from companies like Google, acting as a one-stop shop for developers.
MacPaw is already experimenting with credit-based pricing for the app store, where users can perform a certain number of AI operations based on the credits they have and the complexity of the task.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
#MacPaw #taps #Liquid #offer #ondevice #inference #devs #building #app #store #TechCrunchLiquid AI,MacPaw,offline ai,on device AI">MacPaw taps Liquid AI to offer on-device inference to devs building for its app store | TechCrunch
Ukraine-based app developer MacPaw has partnered up with Liquid AI to power its products with locally hosted AI models, and eventually make the tech stack available to developers. The company is also preparing its SetApp app store for AI apps with credit-based plans for users.
MacPaw is currently working on its AI assistant Eney, which it unveiled last year, and now plans to build a locally hosted version, for which it has roped in Liquid AI to develop an on-device inference system called Elix as well as a local memory system.
“Before training our models, we select an architecture that is different and tailored to the hardware. That allows us to really have the most efficient version of intelligence that runs directly on the device, with benefits like privacy and security,” Liquid AI’s co-founder and CEO Ramin Hasani told TechCrunch.
MacPaw’s CEO Oleksandr Kosovan said locally hosted AI models will also give users the ability to run assistants and agentic workflows offline.
Notably, Apple already provides its own local models to developers. But Hasani maintains that Liquid AI’s models focus on performance for different capabilities.
“We are also building a customization stack around models. This means that with user input, the models can use the data and improve. We want our models to be adaptable and become more intelligent over time,” Hasani said.
MacPaw plans to focus more on AI apps for its subscription-based app store, SetApp, which has over 150,000 paying users.
Once it locks in the local processing architecture with Liquid AI, MacPaw wants to make the tech available to developers so they can use on-device inference with their apps. Kosovan said the platform will also provide access to other cloud models from companies like Google, acting as a one-stop shop for developers.
MacPaw is already experimenting with credit-based pricing for the app store, where users can perform a certain number of AI operations based on the credits they have and the complexity of the task.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
NVIDIA app, where you can install an updated driver in a few clicks.
Update NVIDIA Drivers Using the NVIDIA App
You can update your NVIDIA graphics drivers quickly through the NVIDIA app. If you don’t have the app, install it first. During installation, choose GeForce Game Ready Drivers for the best gaming experience or NVIDIA Studio Drivers for creative tasks like video editing and 3D design. Steps to update NVIDIA drivers:
In the NVIDIA app, there are two different kinds of drivers to choose from: Game Ready Drivers and Studio Drivers. If you play games often, then you should go with the Game Ready Driver. They include optimizations for games and compatibility with newly released titles. However, if you use creative tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve, you should consider using the Studio Drivers, as they suit your purpose.
The NVIDIA app can automatically download new driver updates as soon as they become available. While the download happens in the background, you must still open the app and install the update yourself. To use this feature, go to Settings in the NVIDIA app and enable Automatically download drivers and let me choose when to install. Once enabled, new drivers download in the background, making future updates faster and more convenient.
How to Go Back to an Older NVIDIA Driver
If a new driver update causes any performance or compatibility problems, you can go back to the old driver. The NVIDIA software maintains a list of previously used drivers in the section called Previously Installed on the Drivers tab. Just click the three dots next to your chosen driver and select Reinstall.
In addition to the driver update tool, NVIDIA has several other helpful tools. One of them is an automatic optimization of game settings to improve their performance. It also supports NVIDIA ShadowPlay, which lets you record gameplay and take screenshots or video recordings. You can also check the Drivers page for updates on new games, driver releases, and NVIDIA features.
NVIDIA app, where you can install an updated driver in a few clicks.
Update NVIDIA Drivers Using the NVIDIA App
You can update your NVIDIA graphics drivers quickly through the NVIDIA app. If you don’t have the app, install it first. During installation, choose GeForce Game Ready Drivers for the best gaming experience or NVIDIA Studio Drivers for creative tasks like video editing and 3D design. Steps to update NVIDIA drivers:
In the NVIDIA app, there are two different kinds of drivers to choose from: Game Ready Drivers and Studio Drivers. If you play games often, then you should go with the Game Ready Driver. They include optimizations for games and compatibility with newly released titles. However, if you use creative tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve, you should consider using the Studio Drivers, as they suit your purpose.
The NVIDIA app can automatically download new driver updates as soon as they become available. While the download happens in the background, you must still open the app and install the update yourself. To use this feature, go to Settings in the NVIDIA app and enable Automatically download drivers and let me choose when to install. Once enabled, new drivers download in the background, making future updates faster and more convenient.
How to Go Back to an Older NVIDIA Driver
If a new driver update causes any performance or compatibility problems, you can go back to the old driver. The NVIDIA software maintains a list of previously used drivers in the section called Previously Installed on the Drivers tab. Just click the three dots next to your chosen driver and select Reinstall.
In addition to the driver update tool, NVIDIA has several other helpful tools. One of them is an automatic optimization of game settings to improve their performance. It also supports NVIDIA ShadowPlay, which lets you record gameplay and take screenshots or video recordings. You can also check the Drivers page for updates on new games, driver releases, and NVIDIA features.
#Easily #Update #NVIDIA #DriversNVIDIA">How To Easily Update Your NVIDIA Drivers?
Whether you play games, create videos, or perform daily tasks on your computer, having up-to-date NVIDIA drivers is essential. NVIDIA drivers enable your graphics card to work effectively with Windows and programs installed on it. Upgrading your driver will improve performance, solve existing problems, make it more compatible with recently developed software, and offer new features. The most convenient method for upgrading your driver is to use the NVIDIA app, where you can install an updated driver in a few clicks.
Update NVIDIA Drivers Using the NVIDIA App
You can update your NVIDIA graphics drivers quickly through the NVIDIA app. If you don’t have the app, install it first. During installation, choose GeForce Game Ready Drivers for the best gaming experience or NVIDIA Studio Drivers for creative tasks like video editing and 3D design. Steps to update NVIDIA drivers:
In the NVIDIA app, there are two different kinds of drivers to choose from: Game Ready Drivers and Studio Drivers. If you play games often, then you should go with the Game Ready Driver. They include optimizations for games and compatibility with newly released titles. However, if you use creative tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve, you should consider using the Studio Drivers, as they suit your purpose.
The NVIDIA app can automatically download new driver updates as soon as they become available. While the download happens in the background, you must still open the app and install the update yourself. To use this feature, go to Settings in the NVIDIA app and enable Automatically download drivers and let me choose when to install. Once enabled, new drivers download in the background, making future updates faster and more convenient.
How to Go Back to an Older NVIDIA Driver
If a new driver update causes any performance or compatibility problems, you can go back to the old driver. The NVIDIA software maintains a list of previously used drivers in the section called Previously Installed on the Drivers tab. Just click the three dots next to your chosen driver and select Reinstall.
In addition to the driver update tool, NVIDIA has several other helpful tools. One of them is an automatic optimization of game settings to improve their performance. It also supports NVIDIA ShadowPlay, which lets you record gameplay and take screenshots or video recordings. You can also check the Drivers page for updates on new games, driver releases, and NVIDIA features.
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