Summary
- Google Slides is gaining a Vids-powered recorder that turns existing presentations into immediately shareable videos.
- Google Vids lets you trim filler words, lengthy pauses, and unwanted sentences by editing the recording’s transcript.
- The feature supports personal Google accounts, but recording requires Chrome or Edge and is limited to 30 minutes.
Prior to this, turning a presentation into a video meant exporting it or recording your screen with a separate app like OBS. But now, Google will help you cut out much of that process with its implementation of Google Vids directly into Slides.
According to the Google Workspace Updates blog, a new Record option is rolling out in the right-hand menu of Google Slides. It will be available to all Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google accounts. The rollout began on August 20 for Rapid Release domains, while Scheduled Release domains will receive it starting September 7.
Google Vids turns your presentation into an editable recording
You can remove mistakes without re-recording everything again
The Google Vids implementation allows you to capture yourself and the presentation together, or record your voice over the slides without appearing on camera. Moreover, Google lets you choose an external camera or microphone and apply visual effects before recording. After you're done recording, you can immediately copy a shareable link or open the take in Google Vids for further editing.
Google Vids already combines presentation building with video editing, but this integration removes the need to begin a separate project or manually import a finished presentation. Your existing slide deck becomes the basis of the video, while Vids provides editing tools that ordinary Google Slides recordings lack.
The selling point of this update is transcript-based trimming. Vids generates a transcript of your recording, flags filler words and long pauses, and lets you remove them with a click. Removing a word, pause, or unnecessary sentence from the transcript also cuts that portion from the video, which can save you a lot of time and headaches from manually cutting every unwanted bit.
This creates a useful end-to-end workflow for presentations. You can already turn a text outline into a Google Slides presentation with Gemini and make any necessary changes, but now you can record and polish the result without leaving Google’s apps.
That said, there are a couple of limitations. Recording creation only works in Chrome and Edge, and the recordings can't be longer than 30 minutes. The files also consume Google storage, so personal users approaching the free 15GB limit may need to clear files quietly occupying their Google account first.
Pat on the back, Google — but we still prefer Loom
It is always nice to see companies adding useful features and integrations to their existing platforms. (Ahem, Microsoft could learn a thing or two instead of randomly removing features.)
Still, while the new Vids integration makes Google Slides more capable, Loom remains the more versatile option for recording presentations, annotating your screen, and collecting feedback through comments and reactions. Loom is built as a general-purpose asynchronous video platform, whereas Google’s new tool is primarily designed to turn slide decks into shareable videos.
However, if the content you want to record already lives in Google Slides, Vids now covers the essential recording, editing, and sharing tools without another account or app.