NotebookLM goes mobile – Image Credit: Google
Google has released an iOS app for NotebookLM, bringing its AI-based research tool for understanding large stretches of text to the small screen.
Google introduced NotebookLM in July 2023, pitching it as an experimental AI-powered notebook to help people with research. Previously available online, NotebookLM is now spreading to mobile, with the release of iOS, iPadOS, and Android apps.
The idea of NotebookLM is that it can offer the same sort of insights into content as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or other AI chatbot services. The difference is that it is limited to only accessing the documents and sources you specify, nothing else.
With a limited collection of data, the tool would be only able to offer summaries and important datapoints on the data it is aware of. This helps reduce the potential for hallucinations, where an AI model makes up incorrect facts.
Using the data, NotebookLM offered quite a few services, such as being able to ask questions about the documents, summarization, and idea generation. It can also be used to create podcast-style overviews of content, which gives a way for users to take in the summaries or to aid in revision for courses.
The mobile version
The Google NotebookLM app offers the majority of main features from the full-fat version.
You are able to create and edit notebooks, add and edit sources, and create summaries in the app. Chatting is also available, as well as summaries.
However, the big focus of the mobile app is audio content. The Studio tab is available for creating those podcasts for deep dives into content, with it also able to produce audio overviews.
Audio can also be made and downloaded locally to your iPhone or iPad, rather than generated on the fly. This certainly helps for creating educational content while offline, such as for a flight.
NotebookLM is available as a free download from the App Store. A NotebookLM Plus subscription is available as part of the Google One AI Premium plan, which enables shared notebooks, stylization, and increases the number of audio overviews available per notebook.
