Google Drive enhances activity stream; adds video previews

Google Drive is getting a productivity boost, thanks to a couple of new updates that are rolling out this week. These include the ability to view recent shares on the Drive Activity page and a feature that lets you quickly preview videos in List mode.

Google Drive's Activity page already provides a centralized view of recent comments, access requests, and approvals. Starting this week, the Activity page will include a record of recent file shares, displaying who shared the file and when. This update allows users to quickly track who has access to their files and understand sharing activity at a glance.

This feature is rolling out to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains, making it readily available to all Google Workspace customers and Google Workspace Individual subscribers.

Another exciting addition is the introduction of video previews in list mode. This long-awaited feature allows users to simply hover their mouse over a video thumbnail to initiate playback directly in Google Drive. This eliminates the need to switch between views or download files just to preview a video.

Clicking the preview opens the video in full-screen mode, and a handy control panel appears in the top right corner, from where you can turn captions and the sound on or off. Users can easily toggle captions and sound on or off without ever leaving the Drive interface.

While the video preview feature is currently available on Rapid Release domains, it's scheduled for a wider rollout to Scheduled Release domains on June 4th, 2024. This functionality will benefit all Google Workspace customers, Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.