In the middle of the burst of advertisements and revelations of Google AI products in recent months, you may have missed one of the most useful applications fed by AI throughout the collection: Notebooklm (that LM means a language model).
Perhaps Notebooklm has largely passed under the radar because it was initially launched as an academic research tool when it appears for the first time in 2023.
However, notebooklm is gradually known to consumers, with official applications for Android And iOS now available, alongside Web application. Most of the features are free, but you get higher use limits if you are registered with one of the Google IA subscription plans (from $ 20 per month).
If you have to get together, summarize and study information on several different sources – Websites, PDFs, YouTube videos – then the notebook can help you. Here's how to start (especially how to start on Android, although you will find the same features on iPhones and the web too).
Create your first notebook
Notebooklm is based on laptops (the name of the application is a bit of a gift), and the notebooks are made up of sources. These sources can be mixtures of raw text, PDF documents, MP3 files, YouTube links, files in Google Docs and sites on the web: notebooklm will bring together and pass through all your sources, before providing summaries and answering questions.
To start with a new notebook on Android, press Create a new On the opening screen, point the application to files on your phone or websites on the Internet. You will see that all support sources cannot be added on the mobile, so you are limited to Pdf,, Website,, YouTubeAnd Copied text.
As your sources are imported and analyzed, you will be taken on the notebook screen. The first tab is SourcesWhere you can delete existing sources or add new ones – the substitutes will then adapt if necessary, depending on the current selection of sources. Your laptop will receive a name based on the sources you initially imported, but you can change this by pressing the three points (top right), then Rename the notebook.
THE Cat The tab is the place where you can really start to see the notebook potential. From there, you can ask any questions about the sources you imported. Maybe you want to question certain details, or maybe you want to get a wider overview: simply type your prompt in the text box, then press the blue arrow.
You will notice that NoteBooklm provides quotes for all its answers. In each answer there are small numbers, and if you press these numbers, you can see what sources the application used. As the application uses data that you have provided to it, hallucinations should be less worrying, although the text at the bottom of the Cat The window says: “Notebooklm can be inaccurate”.
At the bottom of each response, you can give it a note, or press the rectangular icon to copy the answer in the clipboard of your phone. Note that your cat history is not stored if you close the application and go back, so if there is something you need to remember, make sure you have saved it first.
Do more with your notebooks
One of the most impressive features of notebooklm is the way you can produce podcasts hosted by AI for each laptop. It is essentially a summary of all the sources you have provided, put in a conversational style which is then read by two characters of AI who act as podcast hosts – and the results can be incredibly realistic.
These podcasts are called a audio seen in notebooklm, and in mobile applications, you can start generating them by pressing Audio preview button in the Cat window. You can also do the same job by going to Studio Tab, and choose Generate– The two buttons launch the same audio generation process.
The podcast production process can take a while to finish, depending on the number of sources it needs to pass, but you don't need to wait until it ends – you can continue to ask questions about Notebooklm while you are waiting, or even go to another application and do something else (your audio will wait for you when you come back).
When the Podcast AI is ready, press Play To hear it on the Studio tongue. Your AI hosts will start talking, with natural breaks and filling words, and they will make you pass step by step in your sources. You get standard reading controls at the bottom of the screen and a small download button (top right), if you want to save audio.
You can even participate in the podcast: if you type Interactive instead of Play on Studio tab, you get a Join Button on the screen while the audio plays. If you have a question or a point to do, press this button, then talk to the microphone of your phone: your friends will then answer your question, because notebooklm would do it by sms on the Cat tongue. It's like calling in a radio program.
There are even more options available on the web version of Notebooklm, which should still go to mobile applications. With one click, you can create study guides from your sources, a chronology, a frequently requested question document and an information document. Google has more on the way, including Video presentation.
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