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Google Veo 3.1 Update Brings Native Vertical AI Video Creation for Shorts

TIG SEA4 hours ago

42 1 minute read

Google has released Veo 3.1, the latest version of its AI video generation model, introducing powerful features tailored for social media creators. Announced on January 13, 2026, this update enables native vertical (9:16) video creation, allowing content to be directly formatted for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram without cropping or losing visual detail.

The key highlight of Veo 3.1 is the enhanced Ingredients to Video system. Users can provide reference images as templates, and the AI generates videos with more realistic character expressions and movements. Even brief prompts are enough for the system to produce dynamic, lifelike videos with consistent character appearances and backgrounds throughout the clip.

For ease of use, Google has integrated Veo 3.1 into the Gemini app as well as directly into YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create. Creators can now transform static photos into short videos complete with synchronized audio and dialogue in just a few clicks on their smartphones.

Professional users and organizations also benefit from advanced upscaling, with output resolutions reaching 1080p and up to 4K through Flow, Gemini API, and Vertex AI. This makes AI-generated videos suitable for professional production standards, television broadcasts, or large-screen displays.

Additionally, Veo 3.1 introduces improved blending capabilities, allowing characters, backgrounds, and objects from multiple images to be merged seamlessly. This addresses issues in previous AI models where character shapes or appearances would fluctuate between shots, ensuring coherent and natural storytelling in AI-generated videos.

This update underscores Google’s push in the AI video space, positioning Veo 3.1 to compete with rivals like OpenAI’s Sora while streamlining content creation for modern social media platforms. Creators now have faster, more intuitive tools for producing high-quality, realistic vertical videos in 2026 and beyond.

Origin: Techcrunch