Google Drive finally fixes the most tedious part of reviewing videos

Giving feedback on a video shouldn’t feel like solving a puzzle. Yet if you’ve ever reviewed a video stored in Google Drive, you’ve probably found yourself typing something like, “At 1:42, the text needs to be bigger,” or “Around 3:15, can you remove that transition?” It works, but it’s hardly the fastest or cleanest way to collaborate.

Google is finally fixing that annoyance. The company is rolling out timestamped comments for videos in Google Drive on the web, making it much easier to leave feedback at the exact moment something happens in a video.

For instance, you’re reviewing a YouTube video or a marketing video with your team. Rather than sending separate messages with timestamps or asking, “Which part are you talking about?”, editors can simply click the comment and jump straight to the relevant moment in the video.

Google isn’t replacing regular comments, though. When leaving feedback, you’ll be able to choose between adding a timestamped comment tied to a specific point in the video or a standard comment that applies to the file as a whole. Existing collaboration tools, including replies, comment resolution, edits, and @mentions, continue to work alongside the new feature.

There is one small limitation to keep in mind. Timestamped comments can only be created from Google Drive on the web. If someone opens the same video from the Google Drive app on Android or iPhone, they’ll still see those comments, but they’ll appear as regular file comments instead of being linked to a precise moment in the video.

The good news is that you won’t need to enable anything. Google says the feature is turned on by default and doesn’t require any administrator controls. It’s rolling out to Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and even personal Google accounts, so whether you’re editing videos for work, school, or your own YouTube channel, leaving precise feedback in Drive is about to get a whole lot easier.