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If you’ve ever used YouTube, you’re probably familiar with thumbnail previews. That small, pop-up preview that appears when you hover over the video progress bar is an indispensable tool for quickly finding a specific moment in a long video. It’s one of those small features you don’t think about until it’s not there. And for a long time, it’s been a noticeable omission in Google Drive’s native video player.
Well, the good news is that is changing starting today. In a new post on the Workspace Updates blog, Google has announced that thumbnail previews are now rolling out to the video progress bar in Google Drive.
How it works
The new feature works exactly as you’d expect. When you’re watching a video in Google Drive on the web, you can now hover your mouse over the video progress bar to see thumbnail previews. You can then drag your mouse along the progress bar to quickly scrub through the video using the thumbnails to find the right spot.
It’s a fantastic update that improves productivity and the overall video viewing experience in Google Drive by making it much easier to navigate to specific parts of a video.
The one big catch and availability
There is one very important caveat to be aware of with this new feature. According to Google, this functionality is only available for newly uploaded videos. This means your existing library of videos in Drive won’t have this feature, but any new videos you upload from today forward (via web or the mobile app) will get the thumbnail previews once they are processed.
The best part of this news is everyone gets it. This new feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts; and the rollout begins today:
- Rapid Release domains: An extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days) starts on July 22, 2025.
- Scheduled Release domains: A full rollout will begin on August 20, 2025.
