Google announced Thursday that Google Vids now supports custom AI avatars created from your selfie and voice recording, plus integration with Gemini Omni to generate videos from text and images.
The updates position Vids as a full video creation platform that competes with specialized AI video tools, while safety features like SynthID watermarking and account-tied avatars restrict misuse.
What happened
Google announced updates to Google Vids on Thursday that let you create a custom digital avatar based on a selfie and voice recording, and integrated its Gemini Omni multi-modal AI model to generate videos from written prompts and reference images. The tool now supports step-by-step edits instead of requiring you to start over.
Why it matters
Google is positioning Vids as an all-in-one video creation platform that moves beyond workplace presentations into direct competition with specialized AI video startups like HeyGen, Synthesia, Captions, and D-ID. Personalized avatars tied to your account and watermarked with SynthID prevent misuse (addressing privacy concerns that plagued OpenAI's Sora).
What to watch
Personal avatars are available only to users aged 18 or older in certain regions. Google has integrated Vids into Google Workspace, signaling its push as a business tool for company updates and training videos alongside consumer creative features.
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Google's move reflects a strategic choice to fill the gap left by OpenAI's shutdown of Sora. Rather than abandon the AI video space, Google is leveraging its Workspace distribution and Gemini technology to compete head-on with specialized AI video startups. The integration of personal avatars directly into a Google account, combined with invisible watermarking via SynthID, addresses the identity and impersonation risks that constrained Sora's public availability and user trust. By tying the avatar to the account holder's likeness and adding age and regional restrictions, Google is building guardrails that other tools in the space — HeyGen, Synthesia, Captions, D-ID — also employ. Positioning Vids within Google Workspace signals that the primary business use case (company training, internal updates) remains central, but the new avatar and creative features simultaneously invite comparison with purely consumer-facing platforms, widening Vids' addressable market.
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