Create, edit and star in videos with two Google Vids updates
Google Vids, the video creation tool built into Google Workspace, has received two notable updates: integration with Gemini Omni for more capable AI-assisted editing, and the introduction of personal avatars that allow users to generate a likeness of themselves for use in videos. Both features are aimed at making video production more accessible to people who work primarily in documents and presentations rather than dedicated video software.
The Gemini Omni integration brings multimodal understanding to the editing process, meaning the model can work with video, audio, and text together rather than treating them as separate inputs. In practice, this allows users to describe changes in natural language - trimming sections, adjusting pacing, or modifying narration - without manually stepping through a timeline editor. Omni's broader context window also means it can reason about longer videos more coherently than earlier model versions.
Personal avatars address a common friction point in workplace video: many people are reluctant to appear on camera, whether due to time constraints, environment, or simple preference. With this feature, users can create a digital representation of themselves that can be animated to deliver spoken content, drawing on a short recorded sample to match appearance and voice. The result is a presenter-style video without requiring the user to sit in front of a camera each time they need to communicate something.
Google Vids launched in 2024 as part of Workspace and has been gradually adding AI-driven capabilities since then. These two updates reflect a broader pattern across productivity software, where generative tools are being used to lower the barrier to producing polished output - in this case, video - that previously required either specialized skills or dedicated production time. For teams that communicate heavily through async video, particularly in hybrid or remote settings, features like these reduce the cost of producing content that feels considered rather than rushed.
