Google Drive a cloud-based storage service available to all Google users at about 15 GB of space. You can free up space by deleting your older files or availing of Google Workspace Drive, which can get you up to 5 TB (as in terabytes) for $18 or as much space as you need for the Enterprise option.
With that in mind, let’s find out together how to share a video on google drive. You can share private videos by Google Drive as opposed to very public videos uploaded on YouTube or Facebook.
Why Would you Share a Video on Google Drive?
Why would you share a video relatively privately or for the eyes of those you’re sharing only via Google Drive? Why not use YouTube or Facebook for it? There’s a lot of reasons for this. One, you might absolutely not want to risk your video going out in the YouTube or Facebook public.
Instagram and TikTok videos are also quite public themselves. Sure, you can private a video on YouTube then give access only to people who have the URL of your video, but that URL can still be leaked. Not that it’s any different with Google Drive’s URL-based sharing, mind you.
However, you can limit views to your video to the people in your Gmail address book or anyone linked to your Google+, and so forth. You have more sharing and limiting options available.
How to Share a Video on Google Drive
Step 1: Open your Google Drive. Sign in to your Google account and go to this link.
You should have one automatically by getting a Gmail account or a Google account. Most any attachments and documents sent to you for work and whatnot are saved on your Google Drive.
Regardless, go to the “+ New” button and press it.
Step 2: On the resulting menu, pick “File upload” then go through your folders to add any video you’ve made or have downloaded through social media.
Step 3: Your video upload will then start uploading, with its progress shown on the lower right corner of your Google Drive screen.
Step 4: Go to the “Recent” or Recent items menu in order to check if your upload really did upload properly to your Google Drive.
Step 5: Right-click your recently uploaded video—its preview and info should appear on the right window pane of your drive—and select “Share” in order to get your sharing options for it.
Step 6: On the resulting dialog box or pane, you change the access settings of your video from “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link“. The “Anyone with a link” option allows even people without a Google account to access and view the video as long as they have the link.
Step 7: You can also add the people who can see this video based on your address book or if you have their Gmail address available to you. They need to at least have a Google account to see your video.
People without a Google account will be sent a link they can only open from their email address to allow access to them if it’s a “Restricted” video.
Step 8: Once you’re done adding people in your address list or groups of people you’re connected with, you can send them a message notifying them about what you’re sending.
You can also save the link yourself by clicking “Copy Link” button on the lower-left corner. Finish up by clicking “Send“.
Bottom Line
You can basically share your Google Drive videos online the same way you’d share a Google Docs document or a Google Sheets spreadsheet. That share button is there for a reason! Use it.
You might also wish to bypass Copyright or Content ID blocks by sharing the video to your handful of friends and family members or acquaintances as linked by your Gmail or Google+ account. Google at least has fewer Content ID restrictions on Google Drive compared to YouTube.
References:
- “Share files from Google Drive“, Google.com Support, Retrieved June 17, 2022
- Barbie Wong, “How to Share a Video on Google Drive“, YouTube, September 16, 2020
- Moranda-Media, “How To Upload a file or video to Google Drive“, YouTube, March 20, 2016
- Jennifer Still, “How to share a video on Google Drive in 2 different ways“, Business Insider, December 30, 2019