Google launches AI avatars in Vids and links AI Mode to third‑party apps

Google announced two major AI product upgrades. First, Google Vids, its video‑creation tool in Workspace, now lets users generate a personal digital avatar that looks and sounds like them. The avatar is created from a single selfie and a short voice recording, is tied to the user’s Google account, and is available only to users aged 18 + in selected regions. Every video produced with the avatar carries an invisible SynthID watermark to flag AI‑generated content. The update also embeds the multimodal Gemini Omni model, enabling text‑and‑image prompts, background replacement, lighting adjustments and step‑by‑step edits without restarting the project.

Second, Google expanded AI Mode in Search with “Connected Apps.” Starting in the United States, users can link third‑party services such as Instacart, Canva and YouTube Music (and a Calendar integration) directly in a conversational search. The linked apps allow tasks like adding grocery items to an Instacart cart, pulling Canva design templates, or saving a generated playlist to YouTube Music without leaving the search interface. The rollout is part of Google’s “Personal Intelligence” effort and is intended to keep users inside Google’s ecosystem while competing with OpenAI and Anthropic’s assistants.