Models · 3 June 2026 · 1 min read
Veo 3.1 update: vertical video and better consistency
Updated on 13 January 2026: reference images that keep characters and backgrounds steadier, native vertical video and 4K upscaling.
By The Crewnema team
On 13 January 2026 Google updated the “Ingredients to Video” feature of Veo 3.1, the way it lets you steer a video with reference images. These are the points from Google’s announcement; the original release is in Veo 3.1: frames, extension and ingredients.
What Google announced
- More expressive characters, with richer dialogue and storytelling.
- Better consistency of identity across scenes.
- Better consistency of backgrounds and objects, so elements can be reused across videos.
- Native vertical 9:16 video for platforms such as YouTube Shorts.
- Options to upscale to 1080p and 4K, in Flow and through the Gemini API and Vertex AI.
- Availability in the Gemini app, YouTube Shorts, the YouTube Create app, Flow, Google Vids, the Gemini API and Vertex AI.
What it means for an advert
Native vertical video is the practical one: most business video is watched on a phone, held upright. Steadier characters and backgrounds from reference images address the problem described in keeping the same face and product in every shot.
Sources
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