Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Drive video playback will get a serious improve with smoother startup occasions and fewer buffering.
- New search filters and smarter search strategies are coming to Google Drive on cell units.
The Google Pixel 8 might need gained the most effective smartphone award at this 12 months’s Cell World Congress (MWC), however Google’s newest announcement could possibly be the actual one successful everybody’s hearts — a much-needed improve to video playback inside Google Drive.
Anybody who’s ever used Google Drive for movies is aware of the ache. The expertise is much from easy, movies take eternally to start out, and buffering throws you again to the period of dial-up web.
Properly, these days could possibly be over. Google introduced that it’s implementing Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) transcoding for all new movies uploaded to Drive beginning in the present day. This interprets to adaptive bitrate playback, that means video high quality adjusts routinely based mostly in your web connection.
The replace guarantees vital enhancements in “be part of time,” that means the time between clicking play and the video really beginning. Enhancements must also be obvious in buffering and re-buffering occasions, particularly when scrubbing via a video or watching at larger playback speeds.
This replace is rolling out now to all customers, together with Google Workspace customers, particular person subscribers, and mainly anybody with a private Google account. Whereas this function applies to solely new uploads as of now, Google states present movies will likely be upgraded by the top of the 12 months.
Google Drive will get smarter search
Google can also be giving Drive’s search operate on iOS units a much-needed enhance, with Android units anticipated to comply with swimsuit. Customers can now count on a lot simpler search filters in Drive, together with class filters like File Kind, Proprietor, and Final Modified, out there immediately in a devoted row under the search bar.
The Google Drive apps may even get smarter search strategies as you sort your question, with related filter strategies popping up as you sort. Lastly, customers may even be capable of refine their search outcomes additional after finishing an preliminary search.
The search updates are already rolling out to Google Workspace customers, particular person subscribers, and anybody with a private Google account utilizing iOS units. General, these updates are a welcome signal that Google is lastly being attentive to the person expertise inside Google Drive.