NotebookLM, Google’s research tool that has gained popularity for its amazing podcasts generated by artificial intelligence, will get an official app on May 20, 2025. You can pre-register for the Android or iOS version of the app right now, and it will be automatically downloaded to your device on May 20, the first day of Google I/O 2025.
Judging by the listings in the Play Store and App Store, Google seems to intend to keep all the core functionality of the web version of NotebookLM intact for its mobile debut. You can upload a variety of sources (PDFs, website URLs, YouTube videos, and copied text), and the Gemini-based NotebookLM app will do whatever it wants with them. This can be answering specific questions, creating tutorials, or creating audio reviews, the previously mentioned “podcasts”.
NotebookLM began its life as Project Tailwind back at I/O 2023 and gradually evolved from a research project to a real product over time. The service officially launched as NotebookLM in December 2023 and received audio reviews in September 2024. As of April 2025, NotebookLM is available in more than 50 languages. The release of a new version of the program is the best sign that the service is here to stay.
Crucial to its success is that NotebookLM makes more sense as a tool you can trust than almost any other Gemini product. The service’s results are based on the documents and sources you choose. This means that Google’s AI is less prone to hallucinations because it directly cites research, and its answers are easier to verify because you can view the source directly in NotebookLM.
Google has already made it clear that I/O 2025 will focus on Gemini by separating Android announcements into its own stream, so there’s a good chance that NotebookLM won’t be the only AI product to get some love on May 20. It remains to be seen if Google has any ideas as compelling as “artificial intelligence to help you digest long PDFs.”
