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Among the many quite a few bulletins search large Google made this week throughout the 2025 version of its annual I/O developer convention (wanting “enter/output”), one of the notable for enterprise leaders is that it’s lastly bringing its hit conversational AI utility Pocket book LM, beforehand out there solely on the net, to the Google Play and Apple App Shops.
NotebookLM, when you’re not already a consumer and don’t recall, is a free Google AI-powered service that started as a manner for customers to add and question paperwork by way of textual content, solely to turn out to be an exceedingly widespread AI podcast generator, full with two extraordinarily personable default AI host voices — one masculine and one female — that banter and intonate very equally to actual individuals about no matter topics the consumer needs, guided by user-uploaded PDFs, hyperlinks, and even YouTube movies.
Robust consumer demand drives cellular launch
The cellular app addresses one of the frequent consumer requests: a manner to make use of NotebookLM past the desktop.
In response to a weblog publish by Biao Wang, Product Supervisor at Google Labs, many customers wished the power to take heed to summaries, work together with AI hosts, and share content material to NotebookLM straight from their telephones.
The discharge has seen sturdy early momentum. Inside 24 hours of launch, the app reached the quantity two place within the Productiveness class of the Apple App Retailer and positioned ninth general.
In the meantime, site visitors analytics agency Similarweb reported that month-to-month visits to NotebookLM’s platform elevated by 56% over the previous six months to greater than 48 million vists, citing a robust adoption charge.
Cellular-first options give attention to offline and multitasking
The NotebookLM cellular app introduces a number of options tailor-made for on-the-go utilization.
Customers can obtain Audio Overviews — AI generated podcast discussions of uploaded paperwork or media—for offline playback — an enormous unlock for these desirous to take audio summaries with them on hikes, on the subway, or anyplace the place cell and wi-fi service is missing.
Whether or not commuting or coping with restricted connectivity, customers can proceed listening with out interruption.
Moreover, Audio Overviews assist background playback, enabling customers to pay attention whereas utilizing different apps or performing different duties on their gadgets.
Interactive AI hosts add dynamic engagement
A brand new layer of interactivity is constructed into the cellular expertise. When linked to the web, customers can faucet a “Be part of” button throughout playback to ask the AI hosts questions, redirect the abstract circulation, and even request light-hearted content material.
This real-time engagement permits for a extra customized and versatile understanding of advanced supplies.
Simple content material sharing from any app
The app additionally streamlines the method of including new supply supplies. Customers shopping an internet site, viewing a PDF, or watching a YouTube video can share that content material on to NotebookLM by way of their telephone’s native share menu.
The preliminary model helps three enter varieties—web sites, PDFs, and YouTube hyperlinks—with extra codecs deliberate for future updates.
Out there now on iOS and Android
NotebookLM’s app is accessible instantly for obtain. It helps iPhones and iPads working iOS 17 or later, in addition to Android telephones and tablets working Android 10 or increased.
The model launched is described as a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), with ongoing enhancements anticipated based mostly on consumer enter.
The event crew has inspired suggestions by means of social media and its group channels, significantly round which options from the net app must be prioritized for cellular.
Video Overviews on the best way
Along with the launch, NotebookLM previewed a brand new function: Video Overviews. Set to reach quickly in English, the function will enable customers to generate temporary, animated video summaries from numerous content material varieties, together with PDFs and pictures.
The cellular launch represents a key step in NotebookLM’s ongoing product evolution, aiming to make info evaluation and comprehension accessible in additional contexts—whether or not customers are at their desks or on the go.
Palms-on expertise with NotebookLM iOS app exhibits promise and pitfalls
My preliminary hands-on assessments of the iOS model of NotebookLM reveals a mixture of promise and efficiency gaps.
The core circulation—pasting a URL so as to add it as a supply, producing summaries, and interacting with the AI—is intuitive and in line with the net model’s give attention to simplifying advanced content material.
As an example, a supply titled Defined: Neural Networks loaded efficiently, created an outline with 7 sources, and allowed playback of an Audio Overview with customary controls like rewind, quick ahead, and playback velocity changes.
Nonetheless, the expertise wasn’t solely easy.
The app exhibits inconsistent conduct when attempting so as to add URLs as sources. In a number of instances, including an internet site URL failed, ensuing within the error message “Couldn’t add supply.”
This occurred even with typical academic content material (e.g., pages about how massive language fashions work).
No particulars have been offered by the app about why these URLs failed—whether or not on account of unsupported codecs, web site restrictions, or community points. This lack of suggestions makes troubleshooting troublesome for customers.
Whereas switching between notebooks, the app sometimes displayed a message stating “Couldn’t load notebooks.”
This occurred throughout navigation between beforehand created notebooks and whereas trying to create or entry new ones.
The loading message “This will likely take 10–20 seconds” appeared often however didn’t at all times resolve, probably leaving customers unsure about whether or not an operation was truly profitable or not.
UI polish and real-time response
The interface itself is visually clear and in line with Google’s Materials Design patterns. Nonetheless, delicate usability delays—similar to loading animations persisting for longer than needed or abstract technology pauses—detract from the sense of real-time responsiveness, particularly for customers aware of the net app’s velocity.
Regardless of the above points, some key guarantees of the cellular app have been validated in use. Myu Audio Overview of a Microsoft’s Construct 2025 keynote deal with performed again reliably in offline mode.
The app allowed me to play content material within the background whereas switching to different apps, assembly the multi-tasking assist claims outlined within the launch announcement.
NotebookLM on iOS delivers on its foundational promise—bringing AI-assisted understanding to cellular gadgets—however early customers might encounter reliability challenges round content material ingestion and pocket book administration.
Enterprise implications: Why IT leaders and crew managers ought to take discover
For enterprise decision-makers—CTOs, IT admins, and crew leads—NotebookLM is turning into greater than only a private productiveness software.
With the introduction of NotebookLM Enterprise, and now NotebookLM Plus, Google is signaling its intent to assist professional-grade purposes for analysis, collaboration, and information administration throughout organizations.
Initially launched as an AI note-taking software constructed with Gemini 1.5 and later upgraded with Flash 2.0, NotebookLM has already confirmed widespread amongst college students, researchers, and information employees. However as utilization has expanded, so has Google’s roadmap. NotebookLM Enterprise (now referred to in public updates as NotebookLM Plus) introduces options aimed squarely at enterprise customers:
- Expanded capability: As much as 5x extra notebooks, sources, and Audio Overviews.
- Collaboration instruments: Pocket book sharing, shared modifying, and customization choices for tone, format, and magnificence.
- Utilization analytics: Perception into how groups are interacting with shared content material.
- Audio enhancements: Group members can generate and work together with narrated overviews and use voice-based inquiries to discover sources.
- Integration readiness: Designed for Google Workspace and now Google Agentspace, with inclusion within the Google One AI Premium plan anticipated in 2026.
NotebookLM’s worth proposition for enterprise groups facilities on its RAG (retrieval-augmented technology) mannequin, the place customers can create centralized, queryable information bases based mostly on supply supplies. Groups can retailer slide decks, coverage paperwork, onboarding materials, product roadmaps, and even CRM-style interplay logs—all inside shared notebooks. This will dramatically cut back search time and context-switching, significantly in knowledge-heavy features like authorized, advertising and marketing, product improvement, or analysis.
In an October 2024 interview, Google famous that early enterprise customers reported success utilizing NotebookLM to construct “a centralized repository of crew intelligence”—a function that may assist with undertaking onboarding, briefing, and information continuity throughout time zones and departments.
NotebookLM’s Audio Overview function, whereas nonetheless experimental, additionally holds potential for enterprise information dissemination. Groups can use it to generate brief, spoken summaries of advanced supplies—ultimate for briefings, podcast-style inner communications, or summarizing new product documentation. Latest updates even enable customers to information the dialog or immediate deeper dives into particular matters throughout playback.
Privateness and management for skilled environments
A current onboarding display within the app emphasizes that NotebookLM doesn’t use private information to coach fashions.
For enterprise or EDU accounts utilizing Google Drive, information dealing with is ruled by Workspace or Training phrases of service, reinforcing compliance requirements. This distinction might assist NotebookLM cross preliminary IT critiques for adoption in regulated industries or organizations with delicate information considerations.
Whereas the app nonetheless contains warnings in regards to the potential for inaccuracies—widespread to generative instruments—NotebookLM is positioned as a information assistant, not a decision-maker. IT leads evaluating it for broader use ought to weigh these limits alongside the software’s productiveness and data administration strengths.
Early enterprise customers already onboard
Notably, some early adopters within the startup and enterprise capital sectors have already embraced NotebookLM as a alternative for conventional CRMs or inner wikis. Sam Lessin, former Meta VP of Product and present common companion at Sluggish Ventures, described utilizing NotebookLM as a substitute of a CRM. Others report constructing information hubs round all the pieces from regulatory compliance to code documentation.
As NotebookLM matures, its rising business-tier capabilities recommend rising alignment with the productiveness and compliance wants of recent groups.
