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

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 software Pocket book LM, beforehand obtainable solely on the net, to the Google Play and Apple App Shops.

NotebookLM, if you happen to’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 by way of textual content, solely to turn into an exceedingly well-liked 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 net again in July 2023 (and made usually obtainable 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 search out out.

Sturdy person demand drives cell launch

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

In keeping with a weblog put up by Biao Wang, Product Supervisor at Google Labs, many customers needed the flexibility to take heed to summaries, work together with AI hosts and share content material to NotebookLM immediately from their telephones.

The discharge has seen robust 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 total.

In the meantime, 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 powerful adoption fee.

Cellular-first options give attention to 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. This can be a enormous unlock for these eager to take audio summaries with them on hikes, on the subway, or wherever 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 pay attention 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 complicated 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 cellphone’s native share menu.

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

Obtainable now on iOS and Android

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

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 by social media and its group channels, notably round which options from the net app ought to be prioritized for cell use.

Video Overviews on the way in which

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 numerous content material varieties, together with PDFs and pictures.

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

Fingers-on expertise with NotebookLM iOS app exhibits promise and pitfalls

My preliminary hands-on assessments 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 per the net model’s give attention to simplifying complicated content material.

For example, a supply titled Defined: Neural Networks loaded efficiently, created an outline 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 easy.

The app exhibits inconsistent habits when making an attempt so as to add URLs as sources. In a number of circumstances, 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 massive language fashions work).

The app didn’t present particulars about why these URLs failed, whether or not on account of unsupported codecs, website 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 whereas navigating between beforehand created notebooks and making an attempt to create or entry new ones.

The loading message “This may increasingly 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 per Google’s Materials Design patterns.

Nevertheless, delicate usability delays—reminiscent of loading animations persisting for longer than obligatory or abstract technology pauses—detract from the sense of real-time responsiveness, particularly for customers acquainted with the net app’s pace.

Regardless of the above points, some key guarantees of the cell app have been validated in use. My Audio Overview of Microsoft’s Construct 2025 keynote handle 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 could 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 information 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 well-liked amongst college students, researchers and information 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 magnificence.
• Utilization analytics: Perception into how groups are interacting with shared content material.
• Audio enhancements: Workforce 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, notably in knowledge-heavy features like authorized, advertising and marketing, product improvement 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 venture onboarding, briefing and information continuity throughout time zones and departments.

Whereas nonetheless experimental, NotebookLM’s Audio Overview function additionally holds potential for enterprise information dissemination. Groups can use it to generate quick, spoken summaries of complicated supplies—very best for briefings, podcast-style inside communications, or summarizing new product documentation. Latest updates even permit customers to information the dialog or immediate deeper dives into particular matters throughout playback.

Privateness and management for skilled environments

A latest onboarding display screen within the app emphasizes that NotebookLM doesn’t use private knowledge to coach fashions.

For enterprise or EDU accounts utilizing Google Drive, knowledge dealing with is ruled by Workspace or Training phrases of service, reinforcing compliance requirements. This distinction could assist NotebookLM move preliminary IT opinions for adoption in regulated industries or organizations with delicate knowledge issues.

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 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 inside wikis. Sam Lessin, former Meta VP of Product and present common companion at Gradual Ventures, described utilizing NotebookLM as an alternative of a CRM. Others report constructing information hubs round every part from regulatory compliance to code documentation.

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