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Google Vids Gets a Digital Twin Feature: Create Your Avatar with a Selfie and Voice

Even though OpenAI's Sora might have taken a back seat, Google is betting that people still love seeing themselves in AI videos. This Thursday, the tech giant rolled out a big update to Google Vids: you just upload a selfie and a voice recording, and the system builds a personalized digital avatar that mirrors your appearance and voice. No need to be on camera—your digital twin does the talking.

Alongside the avatar, Google integrated its multimodal model Gemini Omni into Vids. This turns video creation into a back-and-forth conversation between text and images. You can combine text prompts with uploaded reference photos to generate targeted videos. Omni also brings practical features: change the background of a casually shot phone video, adjust lighting, add effects—no problem. Even better, it supports progressive editing, so you can make changes step by step during creation without having to scrap everything and start from scratch if something doesn't work.

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This series of updates transforms Google Vids from an AI-assisted tool for office presentations into a versatile video creation platform. By integrating Vids into Google Workspace, Google sends a clear signal: it wants to be the go-to tool for businesses creating internal announcements, training videos, and similar content. But these new features—personalized avatars and conversational editing—inevitably put it on a collision course with AI video startups like HeyGen, Synthesia, Captions, and D-ID.

Key Points

  • Selfie-to-Avatar: Upload a selfie and voice sample to create a digital twin that speaks for you.
  • Gemini Omni Integration: Multimodal model enables text-image conversational video generation.
  • Progressive Editing: Make changes step by step without restarting the entire project.
  • Background & Effects: Easily swap backgrounds, adjust lighting, and add effects.
  • Business Focus: Integrated into Google Workspace for internal communications and training videos.
  • Competition: Directly rivals AI avatar startups like HeyGen and Synthesia.