What you need to know
- Google Drive now lets you watch videos instantly after uploading, ditching those annoying wait times.
- While the update is great, you still have to wait for video processing before sharing.
- The upgrade is available to Google Workspace users, individual subscribers, and personal account holders.
- Right now, it’s live for Rapid Release domains, but everyone else will get it by January 2, 2025.
Google Drive just rolled out a handy new feature that allows for instant video playback right after uploading on the web, so you can finally get rid of those frustrating wait times.
In a recent Workspace blog post, Google announced that instant video playback on the web is now live. The company didn’t dive into the technical details, but it’s clear the changes work like a charm.
Before this update, uploading videos to Google Drive meant waiting for them to go through a transcoding process. Basically, the videos had to be converted into a streaming-friendly format for Drive’s player. This step often took forever, leaving creators stuck waiting instead of diving right in.
From now on, you can start watching videos as soon as they’re done uploading to Google Drive.
Cloud storage services like Google Drive are built on a simple idea—upload files and get them back when you need them. But with the competition heating up, these services have evolved beyond the basics. Now, they come packed with nifty features like advanced sharing options.
Back in October, Google Drive rolled out an updated media player with auto-transcriptions and faster video loading. Now, with the new tweaks, the service is cutting down video loading delays even further.
Even with this improvement, it's not perfect yet. Users still have to wait for the video processing to finish before they can share their videos with others through Drive’s player.
Google has confirmed that this upgrade is available to a wide range of users, including all Google Workspace customers, individual Workspace subscribers, and personal Google account users.
Right now, the feature is available to users in the Rapid Release domains. But starting January 2, 2025, it’ll be rolled out to everyone else.
