Recent analysis of application data reveals a significant shift in the driving force behind the growth of mobile AI application downloads in 2026. The core factor has transitioned from the language or reasoning prowess of large models to visual capabilities centered around generative images. According to Appfigures, version updates that prominently feature image models have spurred approximately 6.5 times more new downloads compared to regular updates that focus on language or reasoning functions. For instance, Google's Gemini app witnessed a surge of over 22 million new downloads within 28 days of introducing its image model, marking a fourfold increase from its prior performance. Likewise, OpenAI's ChatGPT garnered 12 million new installations within the same timeframe after launching the GPT-4o image model, a 4.5-fold rise compared to its previous text-based model updates. This trend underscores the evolving user demand for AI applications, shifting from text-based interactions to multimodal ones, with visual functions emerging as a crucial catalyst for user attraction.