Google has rolled out a major update to its Veo 3.1 artificial intelligence video generation model, significantly enhancing its capabilities for both short-form and long-form video creation. Announced on Tuesday, the upgrade introduces native vertical video support, stronger prompt understanding, and improved visual consistency.
The update is targeted at creators, developers, and enterprises producing content for platforms such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, and professional video workflows.
One of the central upgrades in Veo 3.1 is the enhanced “Ingredients to Video” feature, which enables users to generate videos by combining reference images with text prompts.
Google says the updated model can now produce more consistent characters, backgrounds, and objects across scenes, addressing one of the biggest challenges in AI-generated video storytelling.
With Veo 3.1, users no longer need to write long or complex instructions. Even brief prompts can now generate videos with improved storytelling flow, dialogue coherence, and cinematic quality, according to Google.
This enhancement makes the tool more accessible to creators who want fast, high-quality output without extensive prompt engineering.
A standout improvement in Veo 3.1 is enhanced character continuity.
Google claims that Veo 3.1 ensures a character’s appearance, facial features, and overall look remain consistent throughout a video, even when the setting or narrative direction changes.
As per the tech giant, this consistency also applies to backgrounds, textures, and props, which can now be reused across multiple scenes. This allows creators to stitch together clips into longer, more cohesive stories without visual mismatches.
The model is also capable of blending different visual elements into a single, unified video, helping reduce visual fragmentation that often affects AI-generated content.
One of the most creator-focused upgrades is native support for the 9:16 vertical aspect ratio.
With this update, videos can be generated specifically for vertical platforms, enabling direct uploads to:
YouTube Shorts
Instagram Reels
TikTok
without the need for cropping or resizing.
Google says this feature is designed to simplify workflows for mobile-first creators who primarily publish short-form video content.
Google has also improved overall video quality in Veo 3.1.
Improved 1080p output quality
Introduction of a 4K upscaling option
These upgrades allow creators to export videos suitable for larger screens and professional production use cases.
However, not all Google platforms currently support high-resolution exports. Google Vids, for example, does not yet allow exports in 1080p or 4K, despite the model’s enhanced capabilities.
The upgraded “Ingredients to Video” feature is now rolling out across multiple Google services.
YouTube Shorts
YouTube Create app
Gemini app
For enterprises and developers, Veo 3.1 is available through:
Flow app
Gemini API
Vertex AI
Google Vids
With native vertical video support, stronger prompt understanding, improved visual consistency, and higher resolution output, Google is positioning Veo 3.1 as a more competitive AI video generation model in a rapidly evolving market dominated by short-form, mobile-first content.
The update reflects Google’s broader push to integrate AI-powered creativity tools across its ecosystem while catering to both casual creators and professional users.