Enhancing video navigation and accessibility with Google Drive video transcripts

Enhancing video navigation and accessibility with Google Drive video transcripts
Monday, February 24, 2025

What’s changing
Last year, we announced that users can automatically generate captions for any video uploaded to Google Drive, improving the accessibility of videos and saving users the effort of manually creating captions. To build upon this feature and make information discovery, referencing, and productivity with video content much more efficient, we’re excited to introduce video transcripts.
Starting today, Drive users can now view and search transcripts for their videos. The transcript appears in a sidebar next to the video player and highlights the currently spoken text. This update makes it easy to find specific moments, follow along with the content, or jump directly to the part of the video you need.

Who’s impacted
End users
Why it matters
Video transcripts can improve the accessibility of media stored in Drive and enables you to easily search and navigate to key moments within your video.

Getting started

• Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
• End users:
• Your video must have captions to access this feature. A video with captions will have the CC button in the bottom right corner of the video player set to active (not grayed out).
• You can add captions to a video by right-clicking the video in Drive > selecting Manage caption tracks > generate automatic captions. You can also generate captions when the video is playing by going to the three dot menu on top right > manage captions tracks > generate automatic captions.
• To access video transcripts, open a video with captions in Google Drive & click the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the video to open the video settings > select “Transcript”
• Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on video transcripts.

Rollout pace

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 24, 2025
• Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 26, 2025, with expected completion by March 26, 2025

Availability

• Available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts
• Note: Users with personal Google accounts can upload or request automatic captions after uploading a video to Drive.