That seems so impossible that it's absurd. I hear people talking about one thing. ChatGPT, nobody even mentions Gemini. If it's Gemini they're using, nobody is aware it is Gemini, and the only place that happens is on the google search page, not a Gemini app.

Though I guess it's possible all their 1B users are concentrated in India and China and I'd never know.

Well, maybe they lie, who knows. But "hearing people talking" is rather poor counterevidence.