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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Several premium Google Vids features are now open to everyone.
- You can edit photos, add voiceovers, and remove filler words.
- The features should make things easier for beginner editors.
Google is unlocking some AI features in its popular video editing platform and letting anyone with a Gmail address test them out. Previously, these features were only available to paid users.
In a recent post, Google explains that a trio of AI-powered Vids features is now available to anyone — AI-generated voiceovers, the ability to clean up audio to remove silences and filler words, and AI image editing.
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Here’s a hands-on look at the new tools you can try.
Getting to the point with transcription trim
Transcription trim is a feature designed to polish recorded clips by removing filler words and long pauses (Google defines anything over one second as a long pause). To test the feature, I recorded a video in which I read part of a recent article I’d written. I added copious filler words, stumbles, and periods of silence. When the video was finished uploading and I selected “Edit with transcript,” I was greeted with a pop-up telling me I had five filler words and nine long pauses.
One click later, and all “ums” and “uhs” were removed. Another click, and the long pauses were gone. A video that was 1 minute and 25 seconds got trimmed to 1 minute and 3 seconds.
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The feature worked surprisingly well. It wasn’t perfect, as the cut was noticeable in a few spots where I sort of slurred into a filler word after a real word, but 95% of the edits were barely noticeable. (You can restore cut words one by one if you decide any of the cuts are too unnatural.) The program removed the pauses seamlessly, and the end result was indeed a lot more polished.
Generate professional voiceovers in seconds
If you’re not comfortable speaking yourself, an AI-voiceover feature lets you submit a script and receive a professional-sounding voiceover. Seven voices are available to choose from, and while a few of them sound very much like AI, most of them sound pretty natural. I could see this being very useful if you’re trying to make an educational or promotional video and don’t want to use your own voice.
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Easily edit photos
If you’re including photos in your video, Vids now gives you some basic AI editing tools to add a little pop. You can remove the background of an image, describe what you want in a prompt, or turn a photo into a video.
I tried a few basic edits on some recent vacation photos — like “remove the shadows” and “make the water more blue” — but I also tried a few more outlandish requests, such as “add a shark to the water.” The generative results were solid, but still a bit wonky; the editing requests all looked great.
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The photo-to-video option was also pretty impressive. I took a photo of my daughter standing beside Donald Duck and asked the AI to make them hug. My wife happened to be passing by as I played the result, and it was so convincing that she stopped to ask when that interaction happened.
By opening these features to more users, Google is making it easier for both beginners and experienced creators to produce high-quality videos. Given that it’s still fairly new, Google Vids isn’t yet one of the major players in video editing. It could certainly see growth, though, especially if it can capture beginning users.
