Google is equipping its cloud storage service Drive with a modernized viewer for third-party file formats. Specifically, the revision affects the display of PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in the web version. The innovations are intended to primarily facilitate navigation in extensive documents.
Update for Drive PDFs
The biggest change is for PDF files: A new sidebar on the left side of the viewer will now display an automatically generated table of contents, provided the document contains corresponding structural information. Additionally, thumbnail previews of all pages are available, allowing users to jump directly to specific sections. According to Google, both functions are intended to accelerate the workflow for large documents in particular.
For videos, Google is …
Google is equipping its cloud storage service Drive with a modernized viewer for third-party file formats. Specifically, the revision affects the display of PDFs, videos, images, and audio files in the web version. The innovations are intended to primarily facilitate navigation in extensive documents.
Update for Drive PDFs
The biggest change is for PDF files: A new sidebar on the left side of the viewer will now display an automatically generated table of contents, provided the document contains corresponding structural information. Additionally, thumbnail previews of all pages are available, allowing users to jump directly to specific sections. According to Google, both functions are intended to accelerate the workflow for large documents in particular.
For videos, Google is also introducing a search function based on a transcription of the file. This allows users to search specifically for certain terms or passages within a video without having to watch the entire recording. The new interface also includes a revised toolbar and app bar, as well as a modernized file menu, although Google does not go into further detail about these two innovations in the announcement of the update.
According to Google, there will be overall changes to the display of "third-party file formats" – in addition to PDFs and videos, this explicitly includes image files and audio files. However, the Workspace blog provides no further information on the latter two. The innovations are available to all Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. Administrators cannot disable the feature; it will be automatically enabled for all users. The changes take effect as soon as users open a supported file in a new browser tab.
Phased rollout until mid-December
The rollout is happening in phases. The function is already available for domains with Rapid Release. Customers with Scheduled Release will receive the update starting December 11, 2025, with full distribution expected to take one to three days.
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.