Google adds narrator mode to Gemini

Google has announced a new feature in its AI chatbot Gemini called Storybook. With its help, users can create personalized children’s books with illustrations. Just describe the plot and Gemini will generate a 10-page story with text, pictures and voiceover.

What is known

The user can choose the style of illustrations, for example, a comic, plasticine animation or anime. There is also the opportunity to upload your own photos or drawings of the child to make the story more personal.

The feature works on mobile and desktop devices and supports over 45 languages. Although most of the stories meet expectations, some users have reported strange illustrations – for example, fish with human hands or meaningless images.

Google is expanding the capabilities of its AI assistant Gemini, integrated into the cloud service. Now it can work not only with text files or PDF documents, but also analyze videos. Users have the opportunity to find out the content of the video without watching it in full, just ask a question or ask for a short summary.

The functionality is implemented in the familiar chat interface format used by other Gemini services. For example, if a video recording of a conference is stored in Drive, the assistant can automatically collect all the key tasks that were heard in the conversation. However, there is an important condition – the video must contain English subtitles, otherwise the content analysis will not be available.

The new feature is activated in the preview window or when opening the file in a separate tab. It appears gradually – full deployment may take several weeks. It is available to Google Workspace and Google One subscribers with the AI Premium tariff, as well as owners of Gemini Business and Enterprise packages.

In parallel, another innovation has appeared in the Drive video player – the ability to view statistics. The “Details” section now displays the number of views, which allows you to assess how actively the video is used within the team or organization.