The Ultimate Guide to NotebookLM - All 2025 Features Explained

Hey everyone, Jamie here from Teachers Tech. How  many times have you felt like you're trying to   drink from a fire hose when you're trying to learn  something new or even just keep up with the latest   in your field? Piles of research papers, endless  articles online. It can feel overwhelming, right? Today, we're diving into Google's notebook LM.   It's not just another chatbot. It's a game changer   for how we learn and research, made even more  powerful by its latest updates. To put it to the   test, we'll tackle quantum computing. I'll show  you how Notebook LM breaks it down step by step.    We'll explore the fantastic new features like the  redesign studio panel and the mind-blowing video   overviews. Whether you're a teacher, student, or  just a curious learner, this is the tool you need   to see. Let's get started. Let's get logged into  Notebook LM. If you haven't been there before,

I'll put a link in the description or you  can just go to notebookm. goole. I'm going to   click on this. And right away, I just want to  show you a new feature. And depending on what   uh if you're logged into an education account or  personal account, this might not be here. These   are feature notebooks. So what these are curated  by experts, they could be authors or scientists.    So if I go ahead and click in on this one, all the  sources in here have been collected and curated.    So if you start using Notebook LM, that's where  they're going to be pulling the information from.    So that's a neat feature. But like I said, in  the education accounts, you might not see that.    I've switched over to my education account and  you can see that there's no feature notebooks   here. Let's go ahead and create a new uh notebook  and see all the great new features. So, create   new. We're going to have to upload sources. Like I  said, we're trying to demystify quantum computing   with notebook LM. So, I need to upload some  sources. I have a PDF. I have a YouTube video.    I have a article from a website. And I have notes  in Google Docs. Let's go ahead hit upload. We're   going to grab this PDF and open. So, this gets  uploaded to Notebook LM. And if you've never used   this before, what it will do, the AI is reading  this right now, and it's going to give a summation   of this right here. I could save this summation  as a note, or I could copy the summary as well. I   could start using its features about adding audio  overview or mind maps. I'm going to come back to   it when I have more sources. Now, first of all,  I don't want it to call this uh this. I'm going   to rename it. So, I'm going to type in quantum  computing 101. Little bit about navigation. If   I click on this right up top here, you'll notice  here is the notebook that I just created and I can   go back to it. Let's add another source. So this  time I want to grab this YouTube video. So I'm   going to go in here C for copy and I'm going to go  to YouTube and just paste the link in like that.

So now I have two sources. I'm going to go grab  this website here, copy, bring it back over here,   hit add, and then I'm going to link the website.   So I paste it in. If you have multiple websites,   I could hit enter and do multiple ones in here  so you don't have to keep doing it again. Some   websites are behind payw wall. So you'll notice  that it'll get an error, won't read it. I'm going   to hit insert. And lastly, I'm going to go back  and hit add. This is coming from my Google Drive.    I can go slides or docs. Here's the notes. Let's  say you take some notes and I hit insert. Now I   have these four things. The other thing you could  do if uh from a website you could copy paste text   over or if you're taking notes if I go to add  I can go to paste text copy and I could paste   it right in here and that would be a source.   Now that we have some uh information in here   we're ready to start even using more in some of  these new features. Here's a great feature. If

you need more sources the discover sources.   So if I click on this I can give it a topic.    So let's say quantum computing. I can submit this  and it's going to do searching for more articles,   PDFs that I can add to my sources. So this is  a great way. So you can see these are all the   different sources. I can see this is a PDF. We  have different uh websites we have from Wikipedia,   Caltech. So if I go ahead and pick I can unselect  them all with this one or pick maybe I want to add   this one and this one here. So I'm going to import  those two. So now I've added a few more sources to   it. With any of these sources, I can click on them  individually to see the summary of each of these.

And I can also start a chat by clicking on any of  these key topics that the AI pulled from there.    The other thing you can do, you'll notice that  you can go and remove sources or rename them.    Here's a couple key features I just want to show  you in settings. If we click on settings up top,

you can see there is an output language. We can  choose from the long list here. So, whatever what   you need to work with. And the other thing is  under settings, we can also go from light mode   to dark mode. So, if I switch over to light mode,  depending on what you would like to work on. I'm   going to be working from dark mode. Now that the  AI has read all the sources, I can start asking

questions towards all of them. Notice down here  where I start typing, it says six sources. If I   uncheck some of these, then it's going to say four  sources. So, that's what I would be referring to.    I'm going to keep them all on. And it's suggesting  a question. If I kind of go over, you can see   all the different questions it's kind of picking  up. I could start by those ones. But I'm curious   about this. What is a cubit in simple terms? If I  send this off, it's going to research through all   of these different sources. And what I really like  about Notebook LM, how everything is cited. So I   know it's going to be grounded on the resources  that I've curated. So here it is in the simple   terms. It's a basic unit of quantum information.   If I hover over the one, it shows me the   information where it was coming from. If I click  on number one, it will actually bring me to where   it was in there. So, I can go ahead a little bit.   I can open this in a new tab. I can close this   down to bring it back. Let's try another question.   So, let's try this one. So, explain the concept of   superposition based on my sources. So, here we  go. We have this information just like before.    But what I'm thinking this sounds a little bit  too complicated. So I'm going to go and want to   know explain it to me like I'm 10. Notice now how  the language has changed. And this is something   important to know to tell AI is how do you want it  to be told to you? I like it. All of a sudden it   has analogies in here to make things simpler and  more connections to it. The other thing I want   to point out is right here configure notebook. If  you go to that, you can define your conversational   style. You can see the different ones you can  pick and the length of the responses. I'm just

leaving mine at default. If you want to save the  information you get, make sure you turn it into a   note. So just click on save to note and you'll see  that it generates it over here where I can click   on it. We have this information. The other good  thing is we can convert this to a source. So, if   I click convert to source, it adds it over here.   And then this is a part that it's going to be   pulled from. Remember what I said before, we can  remove sources and we can delete these notes as   well. And then we'll be back to empty. Let's move  on now. So, this is where the magic happens. And

you can see kind of how they've updated the look  of the studio with this nice clean look. And this   is all brand new here. This video overview. It's  like it makes a slideshow, puts the voice to it,   and you have a video. So, I'm excited to show you  that audio overview. I just find the quality is   getting better in the podcast. It doesn't sound  as much AI as it used to. We have our mind map   and our reports. So, first of all, let's take  a look at the reports. We can quickly turn all   this information into these quick ones here. So,  if we wanted a study guide from here, all I have   to do is click on it. It's going to be going  through the six sources here, and it's going to   create me that study guide. So, here we have our  study guide. I want to point out here too, we can   convert this to source. So, it would put it over  here if I wanted it. If I click on it and open it,   you can see we have this study guide. It's taken  from the information here. As I go through,   it's put it into a nice way to consume. So, that's  a quick way if you want to learn something to pull   from your sources, you can do that. Remember, you  can close the view and it goes back. The mind map   here is another way to dig down deeper. And this  really allows people, maybe you see things uh want   to see things a little bit differently. A mind  map will allow you to dig down. And I'll show you   how this branches out. Here's our mind map. Let's  go ahead and open this up. Now, you can see as I   expand it, it breaks down all the concepts. And so  I can go through. And if you're a visual learner   that likes to break down the learning, you can see  these step by step. You can zoom out on your mind   map to see the different connections here. You  can even download this. So, if I click download,   this will download it as a uh PNG file. If I  click and open this up, I'll bring this over. So,   now I have this right here as a PNG file that I  have. Remember, you can close it down. Close it   down here. Everything's here still. We can delete  it if we don't want it. All right. Now, the audio

overview. Remember, with any of these, I don't  have to have all these checked. If I want to have   less sources, I can go ahead and do this. With the  audio overview, you can customize this. I like now   that you can go shorter or longer. So, if I make  it shorter, is there something I want them to   focus on? Uh, you can see the different examples.   I'm just going to hit generate for a shorter one,   and we'll go through and do a little preview of  this. We have our audio file all finished here.    Let's give it a little test. This is interactive  mode. I'm going to come back to this in a moment.    Let's just hit play. Okay, let's uh let's unpack  this. You know how some of these big sort of buzzy   terms like quantum information deep wonder what  they really mean for us beyond just you know being   cutting edge tech the most important bits what QIC  actually is why it's apparently so vital and yes   some of the truly mindbend it's sounding really  good you can change the speed too so if I go to   this want a little faster stuff it promises we  want you to walk away with a solid grasp of its   potential impact and you can adjust to what makes  it good for you the other thing I want to point   out you can download this as a file and you  can even share from here. So if I click share,   you can just add the people that you want here,  get them notified and you can see that if you   want to have access to the full notebook as  well. Let's jump back. I'm going to close this.    I want to test out the interactive mode. I'm just  going to press on this. So as soon as I hit play,   then I can uh listen to it. If I have  a question, I can go ahead and ask it. Okay, let's uh let's unpack this. Do you know  how sometimes you hear these big sort of buzzy   terms? Oh, hey there. How could we help? Hey, I'm  just wondering what's the simplest way you could   explain quantum computing to me. I'm really having  troubles understanding. That is an excellent   question. It's totally understandable. Yeah, it's  one of those things that sounds super complex.    Absolutely. The simplest way to think about it  is this. Imagine your regular computer, right?    It uses bits like light switches. They're either  on or off, a zero or a one. Simple, clearcut. So,   look at that. I was able to join the podcast. It's  like phoning into a podcast and getting them to   help me out with a question. I love having that  option. Now, the video overview, this brand new

feature. I'm going to go and look at customize  and I'm going to give it some information. I'm   just going to say present this to a grade six  class because I'm curious of how it will make   this. I'm going to click generate just like  before. We have to wait a while. But remember,   this is going to create a video for me with like  a slideshow with it with the talking. All right,   here we go. It's all done here. Uh, like before,  you can rename, download, share, delete. Let's   go ahead and play this. So, this is going to  open up. This is a preview window. I can go   uh full screen. Remember, if I download this, then  I'd have this on my computer. I can open up. I'm   just playing from here. Let's go ahead hit play.   I'm going to listen to it for a bit. Hey everyone,   and welcome to the explainer. Today, we're heading  out on a really special adventure. Think of it   like a quest. a quest into a secret world that's  being built. I can see already grade sixes being   really interested about this. This really builds  a lot of curiosity what they're even talking about   as we speak. A world that is going to change  well pretty much everything. So, want to know a   secret? I mean a real secret about what's coming  next. I can jump ahead. This amazing new world,   this future powered by quantum technology, it's  not just going to build itself. It needs pioneers.    It needs creators. It needs a new kind of hero.   And who knows, by the end of this, you might   just realize that one of those heroes could be  you. Now, well, this is really interesting. Just   listening to the way it's done and everything.   Uh, this is something that could be quite useful   and engaging to use another way to learn these  different topics. Again, all the things that I've   showed you before, everything works pretty easy.   We can share it here. We can close it down. Now   from all these sources over here, we have these  new sources from uh the study guide to our mind   map to our podcast now to a video. I hope you  found this guide to notebook LM helpful and   it's something that you can put to use right  away. Really excited to see people's comments   about the video feature and what they think of  it or something that they could use. Thanks for   watching this time on Teachers Tech. I'll see  you next time with more tech tips and tutorials.