Google NotebookLM

Jim Russell

2 months ago

Outstanding! I use premium versions of Claude, Deepseek, CHATGPT, Perplexity, & many others (thru Ollama and WebUI), but Gemini/NotebookLM has become my go-to daily tool. It's incredible at parsing documents+video for the information I need & breaks it down into various useful formats (slide show, overview, study guide, memo, etc). The interactive podcast feature is far ahead of competitors-lets you really dig in w/your info. I didn't think I'd ever even use it & now I rely on it constantly.

Dylan Enerson

1 month ago

The app has a nice interface and functions well for what it has but it is missing a lot of the features from the web version that even the web PWA had included. You can't generate flashcards or anything on your notebook other than the audio overview so it is really only useful for that one thing.

Oliver Pierce

2 months ago

Trying to add a PDF source crashes the app on my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. When I try to go to the web version in Chrome to upload the PDF, the only options are media files with no way to select downloaded files, documents or other files. Extremely disappointed with inability to simply add sources.

Matt

2 months ago

I was excited when I first heard that notebook LM was going to have a mobile app. Unfortunately, this app is missing the ability to add audio file sources and is also missing the notes section of the web browser version. These are major limitations and essentially make it useless for me on the go.

Javier Villalobos

2 months ago

Great stuff, very helpful app. my only issue is how terrible the audio overview access is. it gives a lot of errors when trying to load them or download them. Also, there isn't a material you icon for the home screen on Pixel devices, which is kinda ironic given it's a Google app.

David Azua

2 months ago

NotebookLM is great at condensing a large amount of information into a quick conversation you can listen to and actually buzz in the conversation to ask for clarification or to dive deeper in a certain area. This is a new AI tool that can collaborate conversations as you can add yt vids, pdf's and more to explore topics. You can upload your own writings, docs, vids as well to get an outside perspective of your writings. The utility of the app will be as useful as your creativity will allow.

Brian Acuff

1 month ago

Brilliant. And taking your own work, deep diving it and listening to how the two AI's interpret it is pretty interesting. Non-Fiction AND Fiction, it's a lot of fun. And with Fiction you can listen for if the AI's misinterpret anything and if they do, it's something you need to clarify , which is a convenient "proof-read by a 3rd party" that you don't have to bother your friends or family about.

Christina Rivera-Scott

1 month ago

I am enjoying using this app however there are times when I use the interactive function where the convo with the hosts answering suddenly cuts out. and this has led to a few incomplete conversations that I can't recover. Edit: taking off another star because today the app started cutting out the audio all together just a few minutes into them talking consistently. it's gotten to the point where I cannot complete a conversation with them about my topic.

ANIRUDH M KULKARNI

1 month ago

Note: I request google to just make it possible to upload gdocs for convenience. Honest review: I straight up recommend this to every student in the world; especially high school or collage students. This app is just a monster when it comes to making people understand courses, videos, pdf's etc... Just awesome! It helped me in my crucial times when a test or exam was nearing up. It's just a lifesaver!!

MUGAN

2 weeks ago

Amazing 😍! But I think it should have more advanced features, like control over the length, a detailed version of the audio overview, and a more conversational tone where the person not only answers questions from the book but also asks thoughtful questions that the book itself doesn’t address. Talking pace (not audio speed), interaction (you can ask questions in audio overview), teacher mode, detailed mode, This app has the potential to revolutionize learning.

Jonathan W.

1 month ago

Extraordinary for what it is, but still very flawed. This begs the question of why they have switched so soon to a subscription for multiple uses. Faulty summaries, inaccurate "Deep Dives", and the occasional ear-splitting or hair-raising noise in the audio as well as the arbitrary limit on creations keep this from being all it could be.

Matthew Robbins

1 month ago

Not noticeably better than the mobile site. Also, there is a bug when you create a new notebook from a web site source. If the import fails, then you'll be left with an empty notebook. From that point, clicking the "Add a source" button doesn't work with a toast saying "This notebook has reached its 0 source limit." You'll need to delete the notebook and start over. This simple scenario should have been tested/fixed before release.

Elyas Balogun

1 month ago

Will give it 5 stars if... A very good concept and have the ability to become the default no. 1 note app if only the following could be improved: 1) faster rendering of the notes into audio 2) ability to scan texts from pictures and include them as a source 3) fix the shared link as a source. 4) my personal pet peeve: make it consistent with the material U/expressive design.

Dan Jones

2 months ago

Nice initial offering, but missing one important feature. It's a good mobile interface, and much better than use the web UI in a mobile browser. But it's missing the "Notes" section (found over "Studio" on the web). That one is pretty important for me personally, so I won't be able to fully use it until that's there. Hopefully that will be added soon.

Tim Berberich

2 months ago

The web interface is far superior, which is why I'm taking a star off the app. I don't see a way to include custom instructions for the podcast, no way to change speed, nor can I download the file for the purposes of using the audio outside the app itself. When I do click the download button it seems to just download it for use in the app. oh doesn't show up in my downloads folder for me to put into my podcast app. So, some functionality is missing, but overall great.

Daniel Cheah

2 weeks ago

Worse alternative platform app I've ever used. Feels like another app entirely, and missing out on a lot of core and original features that can be found on the website. No notes section along with the already known fact that the conversations are never saved, can't select sources, no export options, audio can't be downloaded as file... Horrible android app really, defeats the main purpose of it, Google really should've tried to focus on mobile vers since it's a game changer for a lot of users...

Kent Viscount

1 week ago

this review is not for notebookLM, but for the app. like many Google apps the Android version of this tool is missing functionality of the website. for example the website allows you to import from Google drive, this app does not natively allow that. you have to download the file from Google drive and then upload into the app. and like other Google apps with an audio overview it does not work natively with Android Auto. I typically listen to my podcasts going to and from work and I can't do that