Google Drive Rolls Out New Video Player With Fast-Forward and Rewind Buttons

Google is rolling out a revamped video player for its cloud storage service — Google Drive. It gets a new look in line with the Mountain View-based tech giant’s Material Design 3 system. Following its introduction, there are dedicated buttons for fast-forwarding and rewinding the media while the playback speed adjustment option also gets an enhancement. Notably, this development comes after the company rolled out inventory reporting in Google Drive globally earlier this month.

In a blog post, Google introduced the new media player in Google Drive. It features a new layout with a more modern look. Users can now fast forward or rewind videos by 15-second intervals courtesy of new dedicated buttons that appear alongside the play/pause option. Additionally, the playback speed and captions can be tweaked without having to delve into the settings of the media player.

As per the company, this feature has been introduced to provide an experience in line with Google Vids — its upcoming editor which leverages the Gemini large language model (LLMO) for video creation.

The new video player in Google Drive is in the extended rollout phase for the accounts with Rapid Release domains and Google says it might take up to 15 days for the feature to be visible to all users. Meanwhile, Schedule Release domain accounts will get it starting November 18, with expected visibility in up to three days following its rollout. It is available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.

Other New Workspace Features

In addition to a revamped video player, Google recently introduced a refreshed look for the Calendar. It brings more modern buttons, dialogues and sidebars. Furthermore, there is also improved interface typography that uses Google’s custom-designed typefaces. Users can now choose between light mode, dark mode or device default theme options.

The changes are said to be applicable across the entire Google Calendar web experience, including the task list view.