Google announced in a blog post on 5 November that Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash, the new version of its video model, is now generally available. The previous version, Omni 1.1, made clips of up to 10 seconds. In the new version, users can set clip length in one-second increments from 3 to 15 seconds.

The model accepts text, images, short video clips and audio, and generates video with sound, MarkTechPost reported.

Conversational editing and a cheaper workflow

Users can ask for changes to the same clip turn by turn, for example swapping the product, background, lighting or aspect ratio. Google said this works across the full 15-second clip. In the API, an identifier links a follow-up edit to the previous request, so users do not need to upload the video again, MarkTechPost wrote.

Google said the price is 30 per cent lower than for Omni 1.1, at $0.07 per second of 720p video. In the Gemini API, the price was $0.10 per second in June, The Next Web reported. By MarkTechPost’s calculation, a full 15-second 720p clip costs about $1.05.

To keep costs down, Google advises drafting at 360p or 720p, fixing a detail with a follow-up edit and upscaling only the best result to 1080p or 4K.

Quality claims rest on Google’s examples

When the camera angle changes, the model is better than before at keeping faces, clothing, packaging text and brand colours consistent, Google said. Users can guide the model with character, product or style images, motion clips of up to three seconds, and audio. The company also said lip sync is clearer and continuous camera movements contain fewer unwanted cuts.

Google demonstrates the improvements with its own example videos comparing version 1.2 with 1.1. MarkTechPost said Google has not published benchmark results for 1.2. The Next Web reported that in Google DeepMind’s own comparisons, raters judged 1.2 more visually consistent than 1.1 in 62 per cent of cases. Google’s blog does not mention the figure.

Google acknowledges that the model still has room to improve in depicting fast sports movements, rapid script changes and complex physics. The Next Web noted that Seedance 2.5, which ByteDance unveiled in June, makes 30-second clips.

Availability

Developers can use the model through the Gemini API and Google AI Studio, and businesses through Google Cloud. Google said Omni is now generally available on Google Cloud for the first time. On Google Cloud, audio references are still limited to approved users, MarkTechPost reported.

Among Google’s own apps, the model is coming to the creative tool Flow, Google Ads and Google Vids. In Vids, users can make 15-second clips at no extra cost with a Google account or a Workspace subscription. The model is rolling out gradually to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app. Videos carry an invisible SynthID watermark.