Google announced an update to Google Vids that lets users create custom digital avatars that resemble and sound like them by uploading a selfie and a voice recording. The company presented these capabilities as part of a broader upgrade to the existing Vids platform.
Gemini Omni: multimodal video creation and editing
As part of the update, Google Vids now integrates the Gemini Omni multimodal AI model. This allows users to generate videos from a combination of written prompts and reference images they upload; Gemini Omni blends those inputs to produce the requested AI video. The model can also perform tasks such as swapping backgrounds, fixing lighting in phone-recorded footage, and adding effects.
Omni additionally supports step-by-step edits, enabling users to modify their videos incrementally without starting over from scratch.
Business focus and competitive landscape
These changes expand Google Vids beyond its original role as an AI-assisted workplace presentation tool into a more comprehensive video-creation platform. By making Vids part of Google Workspace, the company signals business use cases such as company updates or training videos. At the same time, personalized avatars and conversational editing features could position Vids closer to other AI video startups and tools like HeyGen, Synthesia, Captions, and D-ID.
Privacy and access restrictions
Google says the new AI avatars are tied to the account holder’s likeness and linked to their Google account, and are invisibly watermarked with SynthID. The company also states that access to personal avatars is restricted to users in certain regions and to people aged 18 or older.
Context
The announcement arrives amid ongoing activity in the AI video space: while OpenAI’s Sora has been shut down, Google clearly sees continued interest in tools that let people feature themselves in AI-generated videos. Google has indicated it will provide more details about rollout timing and the exact regional availability as the update is deployed.
