NotebookLM Gets an Upgrade: Audio Prompts, Background Listening, and More

Google’s NotebookLM has been impressive since its launch in 2023, back when the company tagged it as an experimental tool.

A little over a year later, that tag is gone, the tool’s got cool new features, and they’re launching a business version.

Learn all about NotebookLM below.

Everything You Need to Know About NotebookLM

NotebookLM is a Gemini-powered digital notebook “designed to help people learn faster,” according to its developers.

Users can upload up to 50 files, up to 25 million words total, in a variety of sources, like PDFs, Google Docs, and websites. You can also upload YouTube videos and it will read the text transcript.

Once uploaded, you can ask NotebookLM to generate summaries, outlines, FAQs, study guides – and more – in just one simple click.

Want to ask questions instead about your content? That’s an option too with their chat feature, complete with citations linking right back to your documents. No awkward keywords necessary, you can use natural language.

Perhaps its most impressive feature is “Audio Overviews,” which allows you to turn your content into a podcast episode, narrated by two AI-generated hosts.

And they’re not just summarizing your content, they’re bantering about it, making jokes, speaking with authority in a natural tone and cadence.

Use Cases

Content Creation and Repurposing

Any content creator or marketer you know likely thinks about repurposing content every week.

Have a blog post that’s getting a ton of traction? You can turn it into an FAQ that will live on your website. Have a podcast script? Turn that into a blog post.

Whatever you’ve got, NotebookLM can give it new life.

Idea Generation

As a marketer, one of my favorite ways to leverage any AI chatbot is for brainstorming purposes. Sometimes, the juices aren’t flowing and staring at a blank page isn’t helping.

A tool like NotebookLM can look at previous content you’ve produced and help you generate new blog ideas, scripts, video concepts, marketing campaigns and more.

Because it’s solely based on content you’ve uploaded, it will be more tailored than anything ChatGPT or Claude could provide.

Studying

Conversations about NotebookLM took off on TikTok, particularly with students. They say it’s their new go-to studying tool, as it allows them to diversify the ways in which they take in information.

For auditory learners (and podcast lovers), the Audio Overviews feature is incredibly useful.

@ndierra Nurisng students go to this website “NotebookLm” and upload your pdfs and notes and turn it into a podcast to learn from !!! Omg I play it in the car/ shower/ gym it really helps me !!! @Google #NotebookLM #NursingStudent #BSNStudent #NursingSchool #studyhacks #nursingstudent #nursesoftiktok #study ♬ original sound - N’Dierra- BSN Student 🤍

Top Feature Updates on NotebookLM

• Go beyond written content – NotebookLM is now able to synthesize YouTube videos, in addition to text. For this to work effectively, the video(s) in question need accurate transcripts.
• Customize your audio output – Looking for something specific in your AI podcast? Now you can provide instructions

Source

• Put on Audio Overviews in the background – Background listening is a new feature helping users explore their uploaded content, while listening to the Audio Overview.

Lastly, Google announced a plan to release NotebookLM Business via Google Workspace. It’ll have enhanced features designed for businesses as well as educational institutions.

However, the specifics surrounding this tier won’t be available until later this year.