What you need to know
- NotebookLM's app on Android and iOS is reportedly receiving Video Overviews after waiting for some time.
- Video Overviews are AI-generated slideshows, packed with visuals, controls, and more, all about the content you've given NotebookLM to help you learn and understand.
- A previous update for NotebookLM on mobile brought flashcards and quizzes to people looking to study new topics.
NotebookLM has been slowly upgrading how it condenses and delivers heavy research notes to users, and this latest update on Android is adding what it's been missing.
A post by 9to5Google highlights a recent update for NotebookLM that's started rolling out for Android and iOS devices, bringing videos. Specifically, this update concerns the arrival of Video Overviews on mobile devices. Instead of listening to the information gathered in NotebookLM or reading it, users can have the AI generate a video based on the content they've given it.
Video Overviews are, basically, AI-generated slideshows equipped with playback controls, visuals, and more.
The publication also spotted an update to NotebookLM's Slide Deck in this mobile-specific update, too. Google is giving users a way to "choose between formats," such as Detailed and Presenter. The former is reportedly designed for users "reading on their own," while the latter offers "clean slides with just the key talking points, meant for supporting while you speak."
Output language and the ability to add a custom-prompt to create a "high-level outline" or to "guide the audience" were mentioned. The update closes with additions to the app's Infographic feature. Now, users can cusotmize is similar to what's available on its PC version. Such options include orientation changes (Landscape, portrait, etc.), which sources should be used, and more.
It's like a digital notebook(lm)
Among the many updates NotebookLM has received over the years, Google's patch in November for mobile looks to help you test your knowledge. Studying takes on a new look in NotebookLM, as Google dropped AI-generated flashcards and quizzes. The AI will utilize the information and details you've given it, which likely concern the topic you're studying. However, users can switch things up by altering the topic, difficulty, and even size of the flashcards and quizzes.
This feature was previously available only through its web version in September.
Android Central's Take
Audio Overviews were already a neat addition with the AI-generated voice overs, but Video Overviews took that in a different way. NotebookLM is designed to help users cut through dense, heavy research topics, and to study, which we've seen it veer toward. If I'm going to have to understand a new topic that's got quite a bit of depth, there are times when watching and listening is a lot easier than reading lengthy text.
