NotebookLM is Constantly Improving its Features
What's new in the AI world 🌍 that I'm watching? 🧐 Trending AI Tools. 🌠
Hey, I hope you had a good summer. I get so many questions and comments about our NotebookLM guides. So I wanted to double back today on some of their new features.
In the AI News 📰📢🚨
First some things I’ve noticed in the news cycle around AI:
Anthropic has raised a stunning $13 Billion F Round and has 7x revenue during the last year. Read their blog.
NotebookLM evolves with Video Overviews and More Languages.
OpenAI does yet another $Billion dollar acquisition, this time of Statsig , a A/B testing, software experimentation company that helps organizations test features and leverage real-time data in their operations with a legendary founder.
Alibaba is developing a new AI chip that is more versatile than its older chips and is meant to serve a broader range of AI inference tasks said the WSJ on Friday.
About a week ago, Google released 🍌 “Nano Banana”, that is their SOTA image generation model Gemini 2.5 Flash Image.
Nvidia’s stock price: I did a deep dive into Nvidia’s Earnings which gave me a lot to think about. NVDA 0.00%↑. (note that Nvidia’s stock is down from its all-time highs, I’m expecting this to be the 5th consecutive down day).
a16z released their 5th edition of their Top Generative AI Consumer Apps. It looks stunningly different yet again: (if you compare it with the previous time).
The Google Gemini app really has jumped into more relevance by Autumn, 2025 and so I thought it might be a good time to share
’s NotebookLM guide. He’s one of the AI creators who mentions NotebookLM the most on his Newsletter of anybody I know.How to create educational videos from your existing content in 10 minutes
Using NotebookLM as a content multiplier
The context engineering learning hub (NotebookLM)
Like every AI tool you are really into or consider using, I also advise you to also browse the NotebookLM Reddit and see what real people are saying.
NotebookLM Upgrades
So in recent months NotebookLM keeps evolving. Here are some of the new features that stand out to me:
Video Overviews:
NotebookLM now supports Video Overviews, which create narrated slide presentations from uploaded sources, offering a visual alternative to Audio Overviews.
Interface updates, with a new enhanced studio panel. The Studio panel has been redesigned to allow users to create and store multiple outputs of the same type (e.g., Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Mind Maps, Reports) within a single notebook.
NotebookLM introduced new formats for Audio Overviews, including: DeepDive, Brief, Critique and Debate types.
Users can now customize Audio Overviews by selecting preferred languages, adjusting length, and adding guiding prompts with much faster buffering times.
NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages.
As of March 19th, NBlm has these new interactive Mind Maps feature that allows users to navigate complex topics by visually mapping connections between concepts. Genspark had this earlier but it’s still a nice to have feature for some research and professional use cases.
As of April 2nd the popular Discover Sources feature was born: The “Discover sources” feature enables users to find related web sources based on their research topic, which can then be added to notebooks for more comprehensive analysis.
Whether you are a student, professional or tinkerer, one of my favorite things about NotebookLM is all the different use cases of how people use the AI tool.
How do you use NotebookLM? What’s a personal use case?
Join AI Disruptor
See what Alex has to offer in his premium content:
Is NotebookLM Plus Worth it?
NotebookLM Plus is a paid subscription, available as part of the Google One AI Premium package. You can upgrade NotebookLM to get additional capabilities, including higher limits and more features through Google AI Pro.
You get some advanced features, customization and collaboration capabilities and more control overall, including enhanced security and privacy. In essence, Google advises that NotebookLM Plus is designed for users who need a more robust and collaborative AI tool for research, content management, and knowledge synthesis.
It’s bundled: NotebookLM Plus is not sold as a standalone product. Instead, it is included as part of Google's broader AI subscription plans. The most common way for individual users to get NotebookLM Plus is by subscribing to the Google One AI Premium plan.
Google AI Pro has the following benefits (NotebookLM Pro is one of them).
Let’s get on to Alex’s DeepDive.
NotebookLM is Constantly Improving its Features
Your essential updated guide on its best new research & content tricks.
A while back, I wrote a guide on NotebookLM for Michael Spencer's 'AI Supremacy' that became one of his most popular posts ever. Given the significant evolution of NotebookLM, with a host of powerful new features, Michael asked for a sequel. The changes are so impactful for professionals that a comprehensive update is essential.
At AI Disruptor, I focus on practical AI implementation for measurable outcomes. This isn't just about knowing what a tool can do, but how you can integrate it into your workflows to save time, enhance your research, and produce better content. This updated guide to NotebookLM is designed with exactly that in mind.
Let's dive into how NotebookLM has been reimagined and what it means for your professional toolkit.
Why these updates matter to you
Remember the core promise of NotebookLM? A personalized AI research assistant grounded in your documents. That promise hasn't just been kept; it's been massively amplified. The original guide on AI Supremacy (you can revisit it here for context) highlighted its power for knowledge synthesis. Today, NotebookLM is even more robust, intuitive, and versatile.
For writers, content creators, researchers, and business leaders, these new capabilities can fundamentally streamline your processes and unlock new levels of productivity.
Everything new inside NotebookLM
NotebookLM has rolled out a suite of enhancements since our last piece. Here’s what you need to know:
NotebookLM Plus expanded its source capacity
The first thing seasoned users will appreciate is the increased capacity. Google launched a paid NotebookLM Plus plan that enables you to work with up to 300 sources per notebook (that’s approximately 150 million words!), a significant jump from the usual 50. This allows for much larger and more complex research projects.
Complementing this is a redesigned three-pane user interface:
Sources panel (left): For intuitive management and selection of your documents.
Chat window (center): For fluid interaction with the AI, grounded in your sources.
Studio area (right): For creating, organizing, and formatting the content NotebookLM generates for you (like notes, summaries, and now, mind maps).
This layout makes navigating extensive projects and managing numerous sources much smoother.
🎥 Watch the video: 3:30+
Interactive mind maps let you connect knowledge
This is a game-changer for visual thinkers and anyone needing to grasp complex relationships within their source material. It’s also one of my favorite features of NotebookLM.
The tool can now generate interactive mind maps that visually summarize your uploaded sources, showing main topics and their related ideas as a branching diagram.
How to get started:
Open an existing notebook or create a new one and upload your sources.
In the chat, click on the auto-suggested “Mind Map” chip or type a request for one.
Your mind map will appear as a new Note in the Studio Panel. (Source 2.1, 2.2)
You can zoom, scroll, expand/collapse branches, and even click on nodes to ask NotebookLM further questions about that specific topic.
🎥 Watch the video: 4 min
As I detailed in a previous AI Disruptor post, mind maps are fantastic for identifying new angles and structuring repurposed content.
Audio overviews are now multilingual
Imagine turning your dense research materials into a podcast-like conversation. That's what Audio Overviews deliver. And now, this feature is multilingual, supporting over 50 languages. Whether your sources are in English, Spanish, Hindi, or Turkish, you can generate an audio summary in your preferred language.
For NotebookLM Plus users, there's deeper customization of narrative style, pace, and length, plus real-time interaction while listening – ask questions without stopping the audio.
🎥 Watch the video: 1:10 +/-
Mobile apps are coming to iOS and Android
The power of NotebookLM will no longer be tethered to your desktop. Dedicated mobile apps for Android and iOS are launching this month, bringing all the core functionalities to your fingertips.
This includes:
Intuitive import of sources (PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, text).
Context-sensitive querying on your documents.
Instant generation of personalized study guides.
Creation and listening of Audio Overviews.
Tablet users also benefit from multitasking features like split-screen views, making it easy to reference documents while chatting with the AI. Seamless syncing across devices ensures your workflow remains uninterrupted.
"Discover Sources" helps you expand your research
The "Discover Sources" feature allows NotebookLM to find and import relevant sources from the web directly into your notebook. This means you don’t have to do all of the source searching yourself.
Simply describe the topic you're interested in, and NotebookLM will present a curated collection of relevant web sources, each with an annotated summary explaining its relevance. You can add these to your notebook with a single click.
🎥 Watch the video: 2 min
Is the premium tier (NotebookLM Plus) worth it?
While the free version of NotebookLM is incredibly powerful, Google now offers NotebookLM Plus as I mentioned, a premium tier aimed at professionals, teams, and businesses with more intensive needs.
There are some key benefits that might make it worth it for you:
Get at least 5x more of everything – up to 500 notebooks, 300 sources per notebook (still up to 500,000 words each), 500 chat queries per day, and 20 audio generations per day.
Fine-tune the tone, complexity, and structure of generated responses (e.g., 'Analyst' or 'Guide' style, or custom styles) and audio overviews.
Features like "Chat-only" notebook sharing allow you to share your AI assistant without giving access to underlying sources. Notebook analytics let you see how shared notebooks are being used.
Meets higher standards for demanding organizations (enterprise version via Google Cloud).
If you're an individual using NotebookLM for personal research, the free tier is likely sufficient. However, if you're a professional, part of a team, or run a business where you're:
Constantly hitting usage limits on the free tier.
Need advanced control over AI response styles.
Require robust collaboration features and analytics.
Have stringent data security and confidentiality requirements.
...then NotebookLM Plus is worth serious consideration.
NotebookLM Plus is available through:
Google Workspace plans: (e.g., Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise editions)
Gemini Education add-ons.
Google One AI Premium for consumers.
An enterprise version via Google Cloud with additional privacy and security features.
NotebookLM belongs in every AI stack
NotebookLM has truly evolved from a promising research assistant into a comprehensive, multi-faceted knowledge tool. With expanded capacity, interactive mind maps, multilingual audio overviews, mobile access, intelligent source discovery, and a premium tier for power users, it’s more equipped than ever to help tackle complex information challenges.
It is a major component of my own AI stack.
The key, as always, is not just to understand these features but to systematically integrate them into your workflows. The gap between casual AI users and professionals who implement robust systems widens daily. NotebookLM provides a powerful platform to build those systems.
I encourage you to dive in, explore these new capabilities, and start thinking about how you can leverage them to achieve your goals.
AI Tools Addendum
Going to back to our a16z Consumer AI report. So why are these lists important? They give you an real-time idea of how people are actually using AI.
Newcomers to the List
I use Grok’s Voice mode in their app a fair bit.
Google is a Fast Riser in late 2025
Whereas ByteDance dominates the AI app category, Google has four properties we can now track that are all doing fairly well.
People don’t realize but TikTok parent company Bytedance just made more money than Meta for the first time in history.
While Alibaba (Qwen) is incredible, ByteDance is still the world’s best AI consumer app maker (by a wide margin).
NotebookLM Visits Peaked in May, 2025
Google is dominating on Android, even compared to ChatGPT’s app.
On mobile overall, Gemini ranks #2 behind ChatGPT – but by a much narrower margin than previously, with nearly half as many monthly active users (MAUs).
By now Google Gemini has about 450 million MAUs, it could be more by September.
While DeepSeek-R2 is delayed it’s costing them traffic. Outside of ChatGPT and Gemini, there isn’t much going on to be honest in terms of widespread AI adoption on the consumer level:
Grok appears to be the rising third player in DeepSeek’s relative absence.
Perplexity is doing okay as an App
If I had to guess Chinese mobile consumers are higher adopters of AI than American ones. (AI adoption rates in Singapore for example are extremely high).
China’s consumer AI app world is like another internet entirely.
Is Vibe Coding a Transitory Phase?
Vibe coding platforms like Loveable are surging in the second half of 2025, and Bolt.AI and Replit are doing fairly well too.
I’m not personally sure if this trend is more fad or will actually stick.
✨ The AI Tool All-Stars?
In a16z’s five editions, fourteen AI tools have appeared on all of them, they are:
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Yep, the ability for it to reference the works uploaded is essential. It’s definitely my #1 tool.
I think the utility comes from being able to confine the sources. That gives you the ability for higher quality control.