I tried the Google notes app that no one talks about

Google’s reputation for launching overlapping apps is well-deserved—just look at the confusion between Hangouts, Meet, and Chat. But after years of throwing everything around to see what sticks, the search giant may have finally achieved something with its latest foray into the notes genre. Yes, it integrates Twins (because what’s wrong these days?) but it’s done in a really healthy and tasteful way. Called NotebookLM, it looks like Google’s long-overdue answer to apps like OneNote and Notion. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that this relatively unknown Google app has one amazing feature that deserves your attention.

NotebookLM: Google’s best-kept secret?

NotebookLM is Google’s latest attempt at a note-organizing app that lets you combine information from multiple sources into one central “notebook.” When you first open the app, you’ll be prompted to import information from a variety of sources, such as your own documents from Google Drive, articles from any URL on the Internet, YouTube videos, PDF files, and even MP3 audio clips.

For example, if you are a college student working on an organic chemistry chapter, you can add your class notes, relevant research papers, YouTube tutorial videos, and audio recordings of past lectures. NotebookLM then brings all this content together in one place. So far there hasn’t been much AI involved, which is good – I wouldn’t want AI doing all the research for me and potentially poisoning my notes with hallucinations.

However, when everything is consolidated, NotebookLM’s namesake finally starts to make sense. Under the hood, the app uses Google’s largest language model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, which can store context of two million tokens. This allows the app to analyze hundreds of pages of text to create new content such as white papers, graphics and tutorials generated using artificial intelligence. The best part? You don’t have to pay $20 a month for Gemini Advanced use NotebookLM.

NotebookLM’s AI-generated content is based solely on the links you upload, so it’s as grounded as it gets. And, as Google Lab’s editorial director demonstrates in the following tweet, AI can understand virtually any source material, including handwritten notes.

NotebookLM is fairly basic compared to full-fledged platforms like Notion or OneNote, but it offers a bulletin board-style interface where you can pin AI-generated content or your own hand-typed notes. This works much better than a chat interface where you have to scroll endlessly and search for relevant responses. However, NotebookLM also offers a chat interface with built-in citations that link not only to individual source documents, but also to the exact page where the information of interest was found.

While the features I’ve mentioned so far seem somewhat useful, they won’t convince you or most people to try using NotebookLM. Luckily, there is one area where NotebookLM is most likely to impress you: the Audio Reviews feature.

Audio Review turns all your notes and sources into a podcast, complete with two human-like hosts reviewing the contents of your notebook. I’m not talking about simple text-to-speech – audio review effectively simulates dynamic human conversation. I was skeptical when I first heard about this feature, but my opinion quickly changed when the AI ​​voices evoked emotions such as surprise, curiosity, and frustration when discussing complex issues among themselves.

Even though I’m not a college student or a marketing professional with stacks of notes to digest, I see the tremendous value of NotebookLM almost every day. Take for example the recent Android 15 update, which came with dozens of changes.

Instead of reading the changelog, I’ve added to the official Google blog as well as our extensive review Android 15 Features into a new notepad. At this point, I could have asked the AI ​​to summarize the update, but I decided to create an audio review instead. The latter takes a few minutes to process, but all things considered, it’s not a long wait. Here’s the final result:

In this particular case, the podcast starts out a little abruptly but quickly picks up momentum. I specifically suggested that the AI ​​talk about the user-centric features of Android 15 before moving on to the less important ones. The presenters carried out these instructions perfectly, listing some of the functions of the headliners and the principles of their work. But notice how throughout the podcast the AI ​​voices don’t just wait their turn, but also encourage, agree, or even disagree with the other host. The clip is filled with examples of “mmmms,” “oh yeahs,” deep sighs and even awkward laughter. In such moments, it feels as if you are listening to a natural human conversation, rather than an artificial creation of artificial intelligence.

And that’s the beauty of this feature. Listening to a podcast isn’t the fastest way to absorb information, but most of us also can’t stomach reading pages of boring documentation or poorly organized notes.

In my experience, the AI ​​Review feature strikes a good balance between speed and engagement—you get an immersive listening experience that feels like you’re passively absorbing knowledge, almost like you’re tuning into a real conversation between two experts. I can also listen to a podcast while doing housework, driving, or walking outdoors. For this reason, NotebookLM could be one of Google’s most useful AI creations to date, surpassing even Gemini live for me.

Do I think NotebookLM and its podcast feature are perfect? No, and the clip above proves it—for example, hosts will sometimes reference a certain topic more than once during the same podcast. I also wish the voices weren’t always so happy and excited. In fact, I would like to see more customization options that affect the final result as a whole. But even so, I think NotebookLM is one of the rare Google products to show serious potential lately, and I highly recommend trying it out for yourself.