Google has rolled out two significant updates to its AI-powered video creation tool Vids: integration with Gemini Omni for text-to-video generation and conversational editing, and personal AI avatars that let users create a digital likeness of themselves to appear in videos without ever turning on a camera.
The first update brings Google’s latest multimodal model, Gemini Omni, directly into Vids. Users can generate video clips by typing a description in plain language, optionally combining text with image references like a photo or rough sketch, and Omni produces a video that incorporates both inputs. The quality improvement over previous models is notable, with better text rendering, physics simulation, and visual realism, according to Google’s announcement.
More significantly, Omni enables editing through natural language. Users can ask for changes, “fix the color grading,” “restyle this in anime,” or “remove the siren in the background,” and the model applies the edit directly. This moves Vids from a pure generation tool to something closer to a conversational video editor, where the AI refines footage rather than replacing it.
The second update, personal avatars, lets a user create a digital version of themselves by uploading a selfie and recording a short voice sample. Once set up, the avatar can deliver typed messages as video, enabling quick video updates, personalized messages, or presentations without studio equipment or recording sessions. Avatars are linked to the user’s Google Account and restricted to their own likeness. Access is limited to users aged 18 and older in certain regions.
Both features reflect Google’s broader strategy of embedding multimodal AI capabilities into its workspace tools rather than offering them as standalone products. Vids, which launched in 2025 as an AI-first video creation tool within Google Workspace, has steadily expanded from simple text-to-video generation toward a more comprehensive editing platform.
All AI-generated clips produced through Vids include an invisible SynthID digital watermark, developed by Google DeepMind, embedded into the video content. The watermark allows verification of AI-generated content and is designed to resist common modifications like cropping or compression.
The new features are available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, as well as Google Workspace business customers across most regions. Editing non-AI videos with Omni is not available in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Texas, or Illinois at launch.
Sources: “Google Vids now lets users star in AI videos” (Deccan Herald, July 17, 2026); “Generate higher quality AI video clips and edit any video with Gemini Omni in Vids” (Google Workspace Updates, July 16, 2026)