Google finally launches NotebookLM mobile app at I/O: hands-on, first impressions

Among the many quite a few bulletins search big Google made this week in the course of the 2025 version of its annual I/O developer conference (in need of “enter/output”), one of the crucial notable for enterprise leaders is that it’s lastly bringing its hit conversational AI application Notebook LM, beforehand out there solely on the internet, to the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

NotebookLM, when you’re not already a person and don’t recall, is a free Google AI-powered service that started as a approach for customers to add and question paperwork through textual content, solely to turn out to be an exceedingly standard 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 folks about no matter topics the person desires, guided by user-uploaded PDFs, hyperlinks and even YouTube movies.

It was first launched on the internet again in July 2023 (and made typically out there within the U.S. in December of that yr), so the cell app has been a very long time coming.

So how does the cell model examine? Learn on to seek out out.

Robust person demand drives cell launch

The cell app addresses one of the crucial frequent person requests: a approach to make use of NotebookLM past the desktop.

In line with a blog post by Biao Wang, Product Manager at Google Labs, many customers needed the power to hearken to summaries, work together with AI hosts and share content material to NotebookLM instantly from their telephones.

The discharge has seen sturdy early momentum. Inside 24 hours of launch, the app reached the number two position in the Productivity category of the Apple App Retailer and positioned ninth general.

In the meantime, site visitors analytics agency Similarweb reported that monthly visits to NotebookLM’s platform increased by 56% over the previous six months to greater than 48 million vists, citing a powerful adoption fee.

Cellular-first options concentrate on offline and multitasking

The NotebookLM cell 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. It is a enormous unlock for these eager to take audio summaries with them on hikes, on the subway, or anyplace cell and wi-fi service is missing.

Customers can proceed listening with out interruption, whether or not commuting or coping with restricted connectivity.

Moreover, Audio Overviews help background playback, enabling customers to hear whereas utilizing different apps or performing different duties on their units.

Interactive AI hosts add dynamic engagement

The cell expertise has a brand new layer of interactivity. 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 looking an internet site, viewing a PDF, or watching a YouTube video can share that content material on to NotebookLM through their telephone’s native share menu.

The preliminary model helps three enter sorts—web sites, PDFs and YouTube hyperlinks—with extra codecs deliberate for future updates.

Accessible now on iOS and Android

NotebookLM’s app is accessible instantly for obtain. It helps iPhones and iPads operating iOS 17 or later, in addition to Android telephones and tablets operating Android 10 or increased.

The model launched is described as a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), with ongoing enhancements anticipated based mostly on person enter.

The event group has inspired suggestions via social media and its neighborhood channels, notably round which options from the online app must be prioritized for cell use.

Video Overviews on the best way

Along with the launch, NotebookLM previewed a brand new function: Video Overviews. The function will arrive quickly in English, permitting customers to generate temporary, animated video summaries from varied content material sorts, together with PDFs and pictures.

The cell launch represents a key step in NotebookLM’s ongoing product evolution. It goals to make data evaluation and comprehension accessible in additional contexts, whether or not customers are at their desks or on the go.

Arms-on expertise with NotebookLM iOS app reveals promise and pitfalls

My preliminary hands-on checks of the iOS model of NotebookLM revealed 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 keeping with the online model’s concentrate on simplifying advanced content material.

For example, a supply titled Defined: Neural Networks loaded efficiently, created an summary with 7 sources, and allowed playback of an Audio Overview with commonplace controls like rewind, quick ahead and playback pace changes.

Nevertheless, the expertise wasn’t solely clean.

The app reveals 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 instructional content material (e.g., pages about how giant language fashions work).

The app didn’t present particulars about why these URLs failed, whether or not because of unsupported codecs, web site restrictions or community points. This lack of suggestions makes troubleshooting tough for customers.

Whereas switching between notebooks, the app sometimes displayed a message stating “Couldn’t load notebooks.”

This occurred whereas navigating between beforehand created notebooks and making an attempt to create or entry new ones.

The loading message “This will likely take 10–20 seconds” appeared ceaselessly however didn’t all the time resolve, probably leaving customers unsure about whether or not an operation was really profitable or not.

UI polish and real-time response

The interface itself is visually clear and in keeping with Google’s Materials Design patterns.

Nevertheless, refined usability delays—comparable to loading animations persisting for longer than crucial or abstract technology pauses—detract from the sense of real-time responsiveness, particularly for customers accustomed to the online app’s pace.

Regardless of the above points, some key guarantees of the cell app had been validated in use. My Audio Overview of Microsoft’s Construct 2025 keynote tackle 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 help claims outlined within the launch announcement.

NotebookLM on iOS delivers on its foundational promise—bringing AI-assisted understanding to cell units—however early customers might encounter reliability challenges round content material ingestion and pocket book administration.

Enterprise implications: Why IT leaders and group managers ought to take discover

For enterprise decision-makers—CTOs, IT admins and group leads—NotebookLM is changing into greater than only a private productiveness instrument.

With the introduction of NotebookLM Enterprise and now NotebookLM Plus, Google is signaling its intent to help professional-grade purposes for analysis, collaboration and data administration throughout organizations.

Initially launched as an AI note-taking instrument constructed with Gemini 1.5 and later upgraded with Flash 2.0, NotebookLM has already confirmed standard amongst college students, researchers and data employees. Nevertheless, 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 elegance.
• Utilization analytics: Perception into how groups are interacting with shared content material.
• Audio enhancements: Crew 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 data 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, notably in knowledge-heavy capabilities like authorized, advertising and marketing, product growth or analysis.

In an Oct. 2024 interview with VentureBeat, Google famous that early enterprise customers reported success utilizing NotebookLM to construct “a centralized repository of group intelligence”—a function that may assist with undertaking onboarding, briefing and data continuity throughout time zones and departments.

Whereas nonetheless experimental, NotebookLM’s Audio Overview function additionally holds potential for enterprise data dissemination. Groups can use it to generate quick, spoken summaries of advanced supplies—excellent for briefings, podcast-style inner communications, or summarizing new product documentation. Current 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 screen 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 go preliminary IT evaluations 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 data assistant, not a decision-maker. IT leads evaluating it for broader use ought to weigh these limits alongside the instrument’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 associate at Gradual Ventures, described utilizing NotebookLM as a substitute of a CRM. Others report constructing data hubs round all the things from regulatory compliance to code documentation.

As NotebookLM matures, its rising business-tier capabilities counsel rising alignment with trendy groups’ productiveness and compliance wants.