Google Workspace’s AI-powered video tool, Vids, just got a rather generous upgrade, and it’s clearly in the mood to do more of the work for you. With smarter editing tools, cleaner automation, and a sharper eye for polish, putting together a professional-looking video now feels almost suspiciously easy.
What’s fresh in Vids?
- Directable Avatars: You can now drop avatars into your scenes and actually tell them what to do. Want a presenter to pick up a phone, point at a sales graph, or walk someone through a product demo? Just type it out. The best part is that their face and voice stay consistent throughout, so your video doesn’t end up looking like a chaotic collage of mismatched clips. It feels smooth, intentional, and, dare I say, a little too easy.
- Custom Avatars: If the built-in avatars feel a bit meh, you can create your own from scratch. Play around with their appearance, switch outfits, change backgrounds, and basically set the entire vibe. For example, you could have the same avatar explain quarterly results in a formal office setup, then casually switch to a bright, fun background for a product walkthrough, all without losing their identity.
- Veo 3.1 Integration: This one’s genuinely fun. You can generate short video clips inside Vids just by typing a prompt or uploading an image. Something like “a cinematic drone shot of a beach at sunset” turns into an actual clip in seconds. You get 10 free 8-second generations each month, which sounds like plenty until you start experimenting and suddenly wish you had more.
- Direct Export to YouTube: Once your video is ready, you can send it straight to YouTube from within Vids. It’s quick, seamless, and removes one of those small but very real annoyances in the process.
- Screen Recording via Chrome Extension: There’s also a built-in screen recorder that works through a Chrome extension. You can capture your screen along with your voice or even your camera, making it perfect for quick tutorials, demos, or walkthroughs. Say you’re explaining how a feature works or guiding someone through a tool, you can record it on the spot without scrambling for extra software. It’s simple, and more importantly, it just works when you need it.
What I really think about these new tricks
Google has a bit of a track record with AI. It rarely rolls something out half-baked, and with Vids, that same approach is pretty evident. These features reduce some of the friction in video creation. Things that would normally take multiple tools, a few retries, and a fair bit of patience now seem far more streamlined. On paper, it all sounds very promising. From generating clips to directing avatars and polishing the final output, a lot of the heavy, repetitive work seems to be handled for you.
That said, I’d still want to spend some proper time with it to see where it shines and where it might stumble, because that’s where the real story usually is. For now, though, it does feel like Google is pushing Vids in the right direction. If this is the trajectory, we’re likely looking at a much more capable and useful video tool, not just another AI feature that sounds impressive but fades in daily use.
