This new Gemini feature could change how you work and study every day

Think of this feature as a digital notebook for taking all notes. Except that it can also summarise information and search the internet for you.

If you struggle with storing and tracking all your work documents and study material, Google has a new feature that will help solve all your woes. The company today announced that it is introducing Notebooks in the Gemini app and its web-based platform. This new feature is based on NotebookLM, which the company initially introduced back in July 2023.

Notebooks will automatically sync across Gemini and NotebookLM. (Google)

By Shweta Ganjoo

Shweta Ganjoo is a Chief Content Producer at HT Tech. She has over 10 years of experience covering technology, during which time she has focused on consumer tech devices, AI, social media, gadgets, and tech policy, delivering authoritative and reader-focused insights across India’s fast-evolving digital ecosystem.

She began her career in the early 2010s, building a strong foundation in digital-first reporting as India’s tech landscape rapidly expanded. Over the years, she has worked with leading media organizations including India Today Tech, Indian Express Group, and Techlusive, where she played a key role in scaling editorial content and audience engagement. At HT Tech, she drives product recommendation coverage, combining newsroom leadership with hands-on reporting experience.

Her expertise spans smartphones, wearables, smart home devices, AI, and social media ecosystems, along with regulatory developments shaping the tech industry. Shweta is known for her analytical approach to product reviews and news coverage, grounded in hands-on testing and real-world usability. She has conducted industry interviews, tracked emerging tech trends, and produced research-backed stories using verified sources and expert inputs. She holds a masters in Mass Communication, which complements her professional experience in digital journalism and content strategy, and aligns with her academic background in technology. Shweta follows a reader-first editorial philosophy, prioritising accuracy, transparency, and fact-checked reporting to deliver reliable, insightful, and practical insights.

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For the unversed, NotebookLM is an artificial intelligence-powered research and note-taking platform that stores and analyses the documents uploaded by users, which includes Google Docs files, PDFs, YouTube videos, weblinks and other documents, to provide insights and answers based on users’ queries.

As of now, NotebookLM exists as a standalone platform. But with today’s announcement, Google is bringing this platform to Gemini as a feature called ‘Notebooks’.

What can you do with Notebooks in the Gemini app?

With the new Notebooks feature, users can keep all their documents, including Docs files, PDFs, videos and web links, related to a particular topic in one place or inside one folder in the Gemini app. Users can use these files and information available on the internet to research a topic and get summaries and insights on it. To put it simply, Google's Notebooks feature is like a physical notebook that we use for note keeping. The difference is that Notebooks feature is much smarter and can answer questions and summarise information for users based on the data uploaded by users and the one available on the internet.

Users can easily access the new Notebooks feature in a separate section in Gemini’s sidepanel. Here users can create a new notebook and add files and folders and weblinks from various sources to it for easy reference. Google says that users can give custom instructions and add relevant files to give Gemini more context. “Once your handpicked sources are organized into a notebook, Gemini uses them alongside its powerful tools and web search to provide uniquely helpful responses,” Google wrote in a blog post.

In addition to this, the company has confirmed that Notebooks sync across NotebookLM and the Gemini app. This means that a notebook that users made on one platform will also be available on the other platform for easy access. With this, unique features like Video Overviews and Infographics will also be available in NotebookLM even if the notebook started in the Gemini app.

How can I access Notebooks in Gemini?

As far as availability is concerned, Google has already started rolling out Notebooks in Gemini this week starting with Google AI Ultra, Pro and Plus subscribers on the web. The company will make this feature available in Gemini mobile app and in more countries to free users in the coming weeks.

For your reference, Google AI Plus subscription costs ₹199 per month in India, while the Pro and Ultra subscriptions cost ₹1950 per month and ₹24,500 per month respectively.