Google Enhances NotebookLM with Interactive Features and Enterprise-Focused 'Plus' Tier

NotebookLM updates Business to Plus with more audio, lets all users interact with AI hosts

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Google expanded access to the business version of its popular NotebookLM app, now called NotebookLM Plus, targeting enterprises, teams and individuals who rely on the app's research tools. The company also updated its podcast-like Audio Overview feature, which allows users to interact with the AI hosts and ask questions out loud. The research tool, which lets people gather information into "notebooks" and ask questions with answers from the source material, launched in July last year on preview. It proved popular and became generally available in December. Originally built with Gemini 1.5, NotebookLM has been upgraded with an experimental version of Google 2.0 Flash, Google said. After the Google team noticed a lot of different use cases for NotebookLM -- including many enterprise projects -- the company launched NotebookLM Plus for enterprises, teams and individuals who use the application a lot. NotebookLM Plus will have five times as many Audio Overviews, notebooks and sources per notebook. Premium users can also customize the style and tone of notebooks, share notebooks with team members, and see usage analytics. Google said it also added more privacy and security features. NotebookLM Plus can be accessed through Google Workspace or Google Agentspace. Next year, NotebookLM Plus will be included in the Google One AI Premium subscription. Google announced what was then called NotebookLM Business in October as a pilot program for new business-focused uses for the application. Audio interaction Audio Overviews, where users can generate an audio conversation based on the information in the notebook, came out in September and became an instant hit. The podcast-y nature of the audio offered a way to help people digest complex information via a conversation between two people and proved very popular. The tool often featured two AI-generated hosts chatting about the information in the notebooks; now, NotebookLM users can interject and ask questions using their voice to get more details or direct the conversation. Users can create a new Audio Overview, tap the "interactive" button and then click on "join" while listening, and the AI hosts will call on the user to ask their question. Interacting with the hosts of AI Overviews will be available only on new Audio Overviews, not on existing ones. Google warned in a blog post that interacting with the Audio Overview is still experimental, and the "hosts may also pause awkwardly before responding or [may] occasionally introduce inaccuracies." Former NotebookLM product lead Raiza Martin had told VentureBeat that Google would introduce more controls and interactions with Audio Overview. All-new look Google redesigned NotebookLM to help users "better manage content and ask the AI interface questions about their sources." The new look introduces three panels: a Sources panel for all the documents or files uploaded to NotebookLM; a Chat panel to access the Gemini chat box to interrogate data sources; and the Studio panel for creating study guides, briefing documents and Audio Overviews. "From the start, we wanted NotebookLM to be a tool that would let you move effortlessly from asking questions to reading your sources to capturing your own ideas. Today, we're rolling out a new design that makes it easier than ever to switch between those different activities in a single, unified interface," Google said in a blog post. Enterprise interest Since its launch, NotebookLM has had various uses, even in the enterprise space. Some have even claimed it is a "CRM killer." Users posted on social media about the different ways they've been using NotebookLM. Sam Lessin, former vice president of product at Meta and general partner at Slow Ventures, said on X that his firm uses NotebookLM instead of a CRM. Martin previously told VentureBeat that her team saw many users begin sharing notebooks with others, making some notebooks the repository of data around company policies or project research.

Google NotebookLM gets a major update -- here's what's new

Google has announced significant updates to its AI-powered productivity tool, NotebookLM, aimed at enhancing interactivity, organization, and collaboration. The updates roll out starting today, including a redesigned interface, interactive audio features, and a new premium offering called NotebookLM Plus. Google has included the launch of the experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash in NotebookLM as part of the redesign and interactive Audio Overview features. This version, along with NotebookLM Plus, are accessible to users beginning today. Those who enjoyed using NotebookLM to summarize documents and turn them into podcasts will enjoy the latest standout feature in the update. Now users can interact directly with Audio Overview hosts. Users can now use their voice to "join" conversations, asking hosts for additional details or requesting alternative explanations of concepts. This new level of interactivity makes Audio Overviews more dynamic and personalized, catering to individual learning needs. The latest features are part of the redesigned layout within NotebookLM. Users can expect features that help better organize projects and streamline workflows. The new interface divides notebooks into three distinct panels: In addition to updating NotebookLM, Google Labs is launching NotebookLM Plus, a premium version designed for businesses, educational institutions, and teams to help streamline worflows. The key features for NotebookLM Plus include 5x more Audio Overviews, notebooks, and sources per notebook. Users can expect more customizability to personalize styles and tones within notebook outputs. Additionally, team collaboration could see an improvement with shared notebooks including usage analytics to enhance productivity. NotebookLM Plus will be available through Google Workspace and a new Google Cloud offering called Agentspace. Additionally, it will be part of the Google One AI Premium plan starting in early 2025. This redesign aims to provide users with a clearer, more intuitive experience when managing their notes and interacting with AI tools. The updates demonstrate Google's commitment to evolving NotebookLM into a more interactive, flexible, and secure platform. Whether for individual users or large teams, these updates bring greater efficiency and innovation to how we manage information. By combining advanced AI features with user-friendly design and enterprise-grade tools, Google NotebookLM is positioning itself as a leader in the AI-powered productivity space.

NotebookLM gets redesign & 'Joining' Audio Overviews, 'Plus' tier coming to Google One

Google is starting to roll out the experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash introduced on Wednesday to NotebookLM. NotebookLM is getting a three-column design that "fluidly adapts to your needs," starting with a "Sources" panel that you can shrink down to a navigation rail or expand to view your document. The middle "Chat" panel is the conversation AI interface to task questions and view responses. Finally, the "Studio " panel lets you access the Audio Overview, Study Guide, Briefing Doc, notes, and more. The goal of this redesign is to make it "easier than ever to switch between those different activities in a single, unified interface." Meanwhile, Audio Overviews are getting a new "Interactive mode" (in beta) to "Join" a conversation. This goes beyond the initial prompting and lets you ask the "hosts for more details or to explain a concept differently" with your voice after you're called on ("I think our listener has got something to say"). It's like having a personal tutor or guide who listens attentively, and then responds directly, drawing from the knowledge in your sources. This is gradually rolling out to new Audio Overviews and Google warns how as an experiment "hosts may also pause awkwardly before responding and may occasionally introduce inaccuracies." Finally, NotebookLM Plus is launching today for enterprise. It's meant for organizations/businesses "via Google Workspace or can be purchased separately via Google Cloud.," but it's also coming to Google One AI Premium ($19.99 per month) in early 2025. Users will get "5x" more Audio Overviews (3 on free vs 20 with Plus), 500 (versus 100) notebooks, 500 (vs 50) chat queries per day, and 300 (vs. 50) sources per notebook," as well as premium features like:

Google's NotebookLM is Getting a Premium Version

Most people are aware of Google's AI efforts with Gemini, but there's also NotebookLM, an AI-powered notebook that also happens to be pretty useful. Now, it's getting updated -- and among the updates, there is now a brand-new premium version as well. Google has announced a series of updates for NotebookLM. The most notable one is perhaps the launch of NotebookLM Plus, a premium subscription plan with a host of benefits for power users, teams, and enterprises. This new premium version of the app will be pretty close to the free version, with a few additional perks. Subscribers will have access to over five times more audio overviews, notebooks, and sources per notebook compared to the free version. They'll also gain the ability to customize the style and length of their notebook responses to better suit their needs. For collaborative work, NotebookLM Plus introduces shared team notebooks with usage analytics, which allows for more efficient project tracking and management. The premium tier also prioritizes data protection with enterprise-grade security for businesses, schools, and other organizations. Beyond the new subscription, NotebookLM is also adding the experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash for users to try out, similarly to how Gemini just did. It has also revamped its interface for smoother content management and generation. The redesigned interface features three primary areas: a Sources panel to manage project information, a Chat panel for discussing sources with an AI chatbot that provides citations, and a Studio panel for generating various content types like study guides and audio overviews. NotebookLM now also offers interactive audio overviews. This allows users to engage in a dialogue with AI hosts during an audio overview, asking questions and receiving custom responses based on their sources. NotebookLM Plus is available now for businesses, schools, and organizations through Google Workspace or Google Cloud. It will also be included in Google One AI Premium starting in early 2025, so if you're paying for Gemini Advanced right now, you'll also be getting access to NotebookLM Plus soon. Source: Google

Google debuts NotebookLM for enterprises | TechCrunch

In October, Google started piloting a version of NotebookLM, its viral AI note-taking and research app, aimed at businesses. Now, the company's bringing NotebookLM to the enterprise, complete with work-focused security and privacy features. NotebookLM for enterprises -- which Google's dubbing NotebookLM Plus -- delivers the same experience as the consumer version, but with added controls for access and data management. Employees can upload data and files to create notebooks, podcast-like audio summaries (called Audio Overviews), and more, and search across and share these projects with org members. Additional benefits include five times more podcast-like audio summaries, notebooks, and data sources per notebook; the ability to customize the style and tone of AI-generated notebook responses; and shared team notebooks with usage analytics. NotebookLM for enterprises is a part of Agentspace, Google Cloud's new platform for AI-powered "agents." It's launching today in early access. "Millions of users have used NotebookLM to make sense of complex information," Raj Pai, VP of Cloud AI at Google, said during a press briefing. "And with Agentspace integration, we're bringing these popular capabilities to our customers, meeting their compliance security and privacy requirements -- and we're connecting them with enterprise data and applications." In Agentspace, NotebookLM lives alongside agents that can analyze documents and emails, translate files, and bring in data from third-party repositories. Users can launch and search for agents from a single interface, and soon, they'll be able to build custom agents using a low-code tool, Google says. For business, school, university, and enterprise NotebookLM users who'd prefer not to sign up for Agentspace, NotebookLM Plus is also available in Google Workspace. As an alternative, org users can purchase NotebookLM Plus separately via Google Cloud. Starting early next year, NotebookLM Plus will also come to individual users subscribed to Google's $20-a-month Google One AI Premium plan. NotebookLM is one of Google's most popular AI-powered products in recent memory. Months after its launch, NotebookLM became the "it" thing on social media for its audio-generation feature, which creates a realistic-sounding, back-and-forth dialogue between two synthetic podcast hosts from a source video or audio file, URL or document. NotebookLM's podcast-like audio generator has since been cloned many times over, and the key leaders behind the app have left the company as well. But Google continues to update NotebookLM with new functionality. Case in point, on Friday, NotebookLM got a redesign that reorganizes the app's tools across three panels: a Sources panel for managing imported info, a Chat panel for discussing that info through a conversational interface, and a Studio panel that lets users create things (e.g. study guides, briefing docs, and podcast-like audio) with a single click. Elsewhere in NotebookLM, a new, experimental feature lets users "join" the conversation in podcast-like audio by asking the synthetic hosts for more details or to expand on a concept. Here's how it works: Google notes that the feature, which is only available in English for now, won't work with existing Audio Overviews, and that the hosts may pause awkwardly before responding or "occasionally introduce inaccuracies." As always, it behooves any user to fact-check answers from AI-powered tools -- podcast-like or no.