Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Drive will now show thumbnail previews when hovering over the video progress bar.
- The feature will be available to all users on the web version of Drive, but it only works on newly uploaded videos.
- It’s rolling out to Rapid Release domains starting today, with a wider rollout starting on August 20.
Scrubbing through a video in Google Drive often meant dragging the progress bar blindly and hoping for the best. That’s finally changing, with Google adding thumbnail previews to the progress bar to make it easier to find the moment you’re looking for. The new feature is already rolling out, but don’t get too excited about navigating your old videos just yet.
The feature was just announced in a Workspace Updates post and is now rolling out to Rapid Release domains, with a broader rollout to follow from August 20. Users can hover over the timeline of a new video in Drive on the web to view scene-by-scene thumbnails, helping you jump to the right moment without much guesswork.
It’s certainly a step in the right direction, albeit by adding a perk many other video players already offer. The slight catch here is that older video files won’t benefit — only those uploaded after the feature becomes available will show thumbnails.
This is just the latest in a string of updates for Google Drive. In June, the Android app got a redesigned video player that aligned it with the desktop version. That same update also improved the mobile upload process with easier file renaming and folder selection.
Google has also been rolling out Gemini-powered features in Drive, including AI summaries for PDFs and a “Catch me up” tool that highlights changes made to shared documents since you last opened them.