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Amidst the flurry of AI announcements and product reveals from Google in recent months, you might have missed one of the most useful AI-powered apps in the whole collection: NotebookLM (that LM stands for Language Model).
Perhaps NotebookLM has gone largely under the radar because it was originally launched as more of an academic research tool when it first appeared back in 2023. Its user interface lacks some of the slickness and accessibility of Google Gemini, and it’s not quite as obvious how you’re supposed to use it, or what it can do.
However, NotebookLM is gradually becoming better known amongst consumers, with official apps for Android and iOS now available, alongside the web app. Most features are free to use, but you get higher usage limits if you’re signed up to one of Google’s AI subscription plans (starting at $20 a month).
If you’ve got to pull together, summarize, and study information across multiple different sources—websites, PDFs, YouTube videos—then NotebookLM can help. Here’s how to get started (specifically how to get started on Android, though you’ll find the same features on iPhones and the web too).
Create your first notebook
NotebookLM is based around notebooks (the app name is a bit of a giveaway), and notebooks are made up of sources. These sources can be mixes of plain text, PDF documents, MP3 files, YouTube links, files in Google Docs, and sites on the web: NotebookLM will then collate and sift through all your sources, before delivering summaries and answering questions on them.
To get started with a new notebook on Android, tap Create New on the opening screen, then point the app towards files on your phone or websites on the internet. You’ll see that not all of the supported sources can be added on mobile, so you’re limited to PDF, Website, YouTube, and Copied text.
As your sources are imported and analyzed, you’ll be taken to the notebook screen. The first tab is Sources, where you can delete existing sources or add new ones—subsequent chats will then adapt as needed, based on the current selection of sources. Your notebook will be given a name based on the sources you’ve initially imported, but you can change this by tapping the three dots (top right), then Rename notebook.
The Chat tab is where you can really start to see the potential of NotebookLM. From here you can ask any kind of question about the sources you’ve imported. Maybe you want to query some details, or maybe you want to get a broader overview: Just type your prompt into the text box, then tap the blue arrow.
You’ll notice NotebookLM provides citations for all of its responses. Within each answer are small numbers, and if you tap on these numbers you can see which sources the app used. As the app is using data you’ve supplied to it, hallucinations should be less of a worry—though as the text at the bottom of the Chat window says, “NotebookLM can be inaccurate”.
At the bottom of each response you can give it a rating, or tap the rectangle icon to copy the response to your phone clipboard. Note that your chat history isn’t stored if you close down the app and come back to it, so if there’s something you need to remember then make sure you’ve saved it first.
Doing more with your notebooks
One of the most impressive features in NotebookLM is the way you can produce AI-hosted podcasts for each notebook. It’s essentially a summary of all the sources you’ve provided, put into a conversational style that’s then read out by two AI characters who act as podcast hosts—and the results can be incredibly realistic.
These podcasts are called Audio Overviews in NotebookLM, and in the mobile apps you can start generating them by tapping the Audio Overview button in the Chat window. You can also do the same job by switching to the Studio tab, and choosing Generate—both buttons launch the same audio generation process.
The podcast production process can take a while to complete, depending on how many sources it needs to get through, but you don’t need to wait for it to finish—you can carry on asking questions of NotebookLM while you wait, or even switch to a different app and do something else (your audio will be waiting for you when you get back).
When the AI podcast is ready, tap Play to hear it on the Studio tab. Your AI hosts will start talking, complete with natural pauses and filler words, and they’ll take you step by step through your sources. You get the standard playback controls at the bottom of the screen, and a small download button (top right), if you want to save the audio.
You can even join in with the podcast: If you tap Interactive instead of Play on the Studio tab, you get a Join button on screen while the audio plays. If you’ve got a question or a point to make, tap this button and then speak into your phone’s microphone: Your AI friends will then respond to your question, as NotebookLM would via text on the Chat tab. It’s like calling into a radio show.
There are even more options available on the web version of NotebookLM, which are yet to make it over to the mobile apps. With a single click, you’re able to create study guides from your sources, a timeline, a frequently asked questions document, and a briefing document. Google has more on the way too, including video overviews.
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