Google Rolling Out Video Transcripts Feature for Google Drive, to Let Users View and Search Captions

Google is adding a new feature to Google Drive that will make it easier for users to navigate through videos. Dubbed video transcripts, this is an upgrade to the company’s automatic captions feature from last year. The Mountain View-based tech giant highlighted that users can now view and search transcripts in videos. This will make it easier to locate specific parts of a video as tapping on a sentence will directly jump the video to that time. Notably, this feature is currently rolling out to all Google Drive users.

Google Drive Is Getting Video Transcripts Feature

In a Workspace blog post, the tech giant announced the new feature. This builds on the automatic captions feature that was introduced in July 2024. That feature automatically generates captions in videos when they are uploaded (Workspace admins can change the setting to allow caption generation only when requested).

When the feature was introduced, Google said that it uses speech recognition technology to transcribe the audio, given that spoken words have been used and the language used is English. While the company mentioned plans to expand the feature to other languages, that has not happened so far.

While the automatic captions feature allowed users to see the captions as the video played, users could not separately view the transcripts. This is now being added with the new update. When a video plays on Google Drive, users will be able to open transcripts in a side panel on the right side.

These transcriptions are shown along with time stamps. Sentences are separated into different items on the list. The side panel also comes with a search bar. Users can either scroll through the transcriptions or search specific words to find the exact time stamp. Clicking on the sentence will also jump the video to that time stamp, allowing users to easily find what they’re looking for.

To access the feature, users will first have to play a video in Google Drive. Users should ensure that the chosen video has automatic captions. This can be checked by looking for a CC button at the bottom right corner of the video player. Once done, tapping on the Settings icon at the bottom right corner will show a new ‘Transcript’ option. Tapping this will open the side panel.