Google Drive now lets you watch videos immediately after uploading them

A highly-anticipated media playback feature for Google Drive is rolling out now — soon after the platform completely revamped the way its video player looks and performs.

For reference, back in October, Google Drive unwrapped a refreshed media player that looked eerily similar to the Apple TV+ video player layout, complete with automatic transcriptions and faster load times for videos. Now, Google seems to be further reducing video load times, going as far as saying that playback of newly-uploaded videos is now instant.

In a new Workspace blog post, the tech giant announced that instantaneous playback is now rolling out on the web, essentially eliminating wait times between upload and playback. The tech giant did not highlight what under-the-hood changes it made to achieve faster loading. Whatever it did, however, is clearly working.

I’ve already noticed faster playback on one of my Workspace accounts, while a different account is still laggard, suggesting a gradual rollout. According to Google, the feature should be widely available by mid-to-late January 2025.

Once rolled out widely, the feature should appear on all Workspace, Workspace Individual, and personal Google accounts. It is unclear if and when similar functionality will become available on Google Drive’s mobile apps.

New Google Groups shortcuts are on the way too

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Elsewhere, as part of the same blog, the tech giant also highlighted a key accessibility-focused change for Google Groups. As part of the change, Google is phasing out old keyboard shortcuts in favor of new, more accessible ones. The new shortcuts, as seen below, are expected to be widely available by January 13, 20255 across Workspace, Workspace Individual, and personal Google accounts. Existing and new shortcuts will continue to work as intended until “early 2025,” after which only new shortcuts will work.