Google has introduced its experimental AI application, Dreambeans, in India, marking its first expansion beyond the United States. The tech giant aims to leverage the world’s second-largest internet market to deliver personalized visual narratives based on users’ digital interactions to a wider audience. On Monday, the company rolled out Dreambeans, which is accessible on both Android and iOS platforms, in India, offering support for 13 local languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali, in addition to English.
This launch follows less than two months after Google made the app available to all eligible U.S. users aged 18 and above. First unveiled in June, Dreambeans utilizes data from various connected Google services, such as Calendar, Gemini, Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube, to autonomously create personalized illustrated stories reflecting users’ interests and daily lives, without the need for user prompts. Initially, the app featured static, AI-generated illustrations; however, Google has recently incorporated a feature that employs its Veo video-generation model to animate images in select narratives.
Google selected India as the inaugural international market for Dreambeans due to the significant interest expressed by Indian users eager to access the app, as well as the extensive utilization of its services within the country. Gozde Oznur, a product manager at Google, noted during a press briefing that India exhibited a notable overlap of users across Gemini, Gmail, and Google Photos.
Since its debut in June, Dreambeans has garnered nearly 55,000 downloads in the U.S., according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, as reported by hinews. Approximately 63% of these downloads occurred in September, coinciding with the app’s availability to all eligible U.S. users aged 18 and older. However, downloads plummeted by 84% month-over-month, falling to around 5,500 in October. In the initial 30 days following the app’s opening to all eligible U.S. users, Dreambeans recorded an estimated 29,000 downloads, in stark contrast to 7.4 million for Meta’s Muse, 2.8 million for ChatGPT, 362,000 for Grok Bot, and 155,000 for Claude during their respective first month post-launch, according to Sensor Tower’s estimates.
Unlike those general-purpose AI applications, Dreambeans is specifically designed to generate personalized stories rather than respond to a wide array of user inquiries. While the app accommodates numerous widely spoken Indian languages, users are limited to selecting only one language at a time for their generated narratives. Although the app can utilize information from various Google services in multiple languages, it currently lacks the capability to produce stories that incorporate multiple languages, as noted by Oznur during the briefing. This limitation may restrict Dreambeans’ appeal in India, where many individuals frequently switch between languages, including Hindi and English, often blending the two in a phenomenon known as Hinglish.
The app’s reliance on data from users’ Google accounts also raises concerns regarding privacy and data accessibility. Dreambeans employs Google’s Personal Intelligence technology to access connected services and tailor its AI-generated stories. These services may contain sensitive personal information that some users may be reluctant to share with an AI application solely for the sake of receiving personalized content. Oznur stated that users have the option to choose which Google services to link with Dreambeans and can disconnect them at any time. They can also erase their Dreambeans data directly from the app. Furthermore, Oznur emphasized that any information deleted from the connected services is also removed from Dreambeans’ personalization framework.
Users can instruct Dreambeans to avoid specific topics, including business-related content, and the app will attempt to modify its stories accordingly. Oznur clarified that Dreambeans is exclusively available to personal Gmail account holders, not to enterprise users, and that the generated stories are only visible to the account holder. However, the proactive nature of Dreambeans also poses the risk of recalling memories that users may find distressing. Oznur acknowledged that the app could generate stories involving deceased individuals, for example. She mentioned that users can request the app to refrain from displaying certain subjects, drawing a comparison to controls in Google Photos that allow users to limit which memories are shown.
Oznur informed reporters that Google is investigating ways to enhance Dreambeans’ functionality, aiming to evolve beyond personalized stories and recommendations to assist users in acting on the app’s suggestions.
