Google Vids adds Custom AI avatars and direct YouTube publishing

Google Vids is an AI-powered online video generator and editor available to Google Workspace customers. It is included with all Business and Enterprise Workspace plans, as well as for consumers subscribed to Google AI Pro and Ultra plans.

The company has been steadily updating Vids with new capabilities. Last month, it announced integration with the Lyria 3 audio generation model, allowing users to create full-length music tracks that match their videos. In February, it added support for 2D and 3D cartoon-style avatars.

Today, Google is introducing several new features powered by the latest Veo 3.1 model. Vids now allows users to create custom avatars that reflect their organization’s identity and target audience. Users can customize an avatar’s appearance, outfits, and backgrounds to match the exact mood of the video they are creating.

Users can also place avatars into specific scenes and have them interact with uploaded objects. For example, when creating a product ad, users can select an avatar, upload the product, and describe the scene. They can generate a video of an avatar walking in a park while wearing a branded T-shirt. The same avatar can then be reused across different scenes, with changes to the environment or outfit as needed. These two avatar features are coming to all paid Google Workspace accounts globally in English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese.

Google today also announced a new Vids Screen Recorder Chrome extension that lets users capture their screen and camera from anywhere on the web. It brings Vids’ built-in recording studio features into the browser, eliminating the need to open Vids separately before starting a recording. This feature is now available globally to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts.

Also, Vids now allows users to export finished videos straight to YouTube without downloading files. All YouTube uploads are set to Private by default, giving users the ability to review and finalize their videos before making them public. This feature is now available globally to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts.