Google Drive videos finally get thumbnail previews, but there's a big caveat

Google Drive is a pretty decent cloud storage solution, especially if you're well-invested in Google's ecosystem. If you use an Android phone, you've probably used Google Drive to store your media content, emails, and WhatsApp backups. Just a couple of weeks ago, Google announced a UI revamp for its desktop sync client for Drive, and while it has announced a much smaller feature today, it's definitely quite handy.

Videos stored on Google Drive are finally getting thumbnail previews. This means that if you hover your mouse over the progress bar of a video, you'll see a thumbnail for that time frame, just like YouTube. And similar to YouTube, you'll also be able to drag your cursor (or finger, depending upon your input mechanism) to scrub through the video while seeing thumbnail previews.

This is a very useful capability that feels long overdue. When trying to locate a specific scene in a video, you no longer need to guess the approximate time, you can simply use thumbnail previews to sift through the video and reach your desired frame.

There is a big caveat, though. Thumbnail previews in Google Drive videos are just available for newly uploaded content. There is no way to leverage the feature on the videos currently present in your Drive library. If you have turned on automatic backups to Drive through your Android phone or are just a Drive user in general, you likely have hundreds, if not thousands, of videos in your library. However, there is no way to enable thumbnail previews on any of them.

In terms of rollout, this capability is now being made available to all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and personal Google accounts over the next few days. There is no way for Google Workspace admins to disable the feature from their side.