Google brings its AI storytelling app Dreambeans to India
Google has launched its experimental AI app Dreambeans outside the U.S. for the first time. In India it supports 13 local languages plus English.
Google launched its experimental artificial intelligence app Dreambeans in India on Monday, marking its first market outside the United States. The app, available on Android and iOS, creates personalized illustrated stories based on a user's digital activity. India is the world's second-largest internet market, and the company aims to bring this approach to a wider audience.
In India the app supports 13 local languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali, as well as English. The rollout comes less than two months after the app became available to all eligible U.S. users aged 18 and over.
How the app works
Dreambeans debuted in June. It draws on data from connected Google services, namely Calendar, Gemini, Gmail, Photos, Search and YouTube, and generates illustrated stories about a user's interests and daily life on its own, with no prompt required. The illustrations were initially static, but Google recently added a feature that uses its Veo video-generation model to animate images in some stories.
Google product manager Gozde Oznur said at a press briefing that India was chosen because of strong interest from Indian users and the wide use of Google services there. She noted that the overlap of Gemini, Gmail and Google Photos users was especially high.
Downloads and limitations
Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates that the app has had nearly 55,000 U.S. downloads since June, about 63% of them in September. In October, monthly downloads fell 84% to roughly 5,500. In the first 30 days after opening to all eligible U.S. users it recorded about 29,000 downloads, versus 7.4 million for Meta's Muse and 2.8 million for ChatGPT over their own first 30 days. Those are general-purpose apps, whereas Dreambeans generates only personalized stories.
Users can select just one language at a time, and the app cannot yet produce stories that mix languages, such as the Hindi-English blend known as Hinglish. That may limit its appeal in India.
Privacy
Oznur said users choose which Google services to connect, can disconnect them at any time and can delete their Dreambeans data. The app is available only to personal Gmail account holders, and stories are visible only to the account holder. She acknowledged the app could generate stories involving people who have died, but users can tell it which subjects to avoid. Google is exploring ways to make the app more actionable by helping users act on its suggestions.
