Gemini app launches “Notebooks” notebooks, which can sync NotebookLM workflows

Google announced that today (4/9) the Gemini app will roll out a “Notebooks” feature, allowing users to build a personal knowledge base where chat history, files, and Google Drive content can be centralized for management, and synced bidirectionally with NotebookLM to connect AI workflows across tools. For now, the web version is available first to users subscribed to AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra.
(Background: ChatGPT gets on CarPlay, the first mainstream AI get on board—pure voice control, and Gemini and Claude are still lining up)
(Additional context: Claude Cowork complete guide: turn AI from a chat assistant into your digital employee).

Table of Contents

Toggle

• What Notebooks can do
• How to connect with NotebookLM
• Free users can’t use it yet

Google has officially launched the “Notebooks” feature in the Gemini app. Simply put, it’s a “project folder” where you can put all your chat history with Gemini, uploaded files, and Google Drive content in the same place, without having to search all over again.

According to a report by 9to5Google reporter Abner Li, Notebooks will appear in the Gemini sidebar, between “My stuff” and “Gems.” Each conversation can be saved by tapping “Add to notebook,” storing important chat content.

What Notebooks can do

Inside Notebooks, it’s not a static folder but a full Gemini work space. You can add sources, including local files, Google Drive files, specific websites, or just paste in text; you can also toggle “Use notebook memory” to decide whether you want Gemini to remember the context of this notebook, and you can write Instructions to set how Gemini responds to you within this notebook—each notebook can have different settings.

Google’s official wording is: “Notebooks gives you a dedicated space to organize your chats and files, because they sync with NotebookLM, so you can unlock a more efficient workflow directly from Gemini.”

How to connect with NotebookLM

The biggest selling point of Notebooks is that it can sync directly with NotebookLM. A notebook you create in Gemini will appear directly in NotebookLM, and the conversation history inside Gemini will automatically become source material for NotebookLM as well. Compiled materials you previously worked on in NotebookLM can also be integrated into Notebooks for easier retrieval.

NotebookLM is an AI note and research tool Google launched last year. It can take large volumes of files, transcripts, and research materials, letting the AI help you organize, answer questions, and even generate Podcast or video summaries.

Google’s example use case is like the one below: students add class notes into a Gemini Notebook, then use NotebookLM to generate a “Cinematic Video Overview” video summary. The next day they go back to Gemini, and it helps you draft a thesis outline based on those materials. The top-right corner of Gemini also adds a quick entry to NotebookLM, so switching between the two doesn’t require opening another tab.

Free users can’t use it yet

Notebooks are currently rolling out first on the web to Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers; free users and the mobile version need to wait for a few weeks. Google also says it’s expanding the feature to more European countries.

Google positioned this launch as “the first step,” and the official says it will keep adding more features to Gemini Notebooks in the future.

At the moment, the Gemini app just updated the Android interface with a major redesign on April 7, and the addition of Notebooks moves the integration level of the entire Gemini ecosystem forward another step.