Google’s NotebookLM rolls out Video Overviews

Google announced on Tuesday that it’s rolling out Video Overviews to NotebookLM, its AI-based note-taking and research assistant. First introduced at Google I/O in May, Video Overviews allow users to turn dense multimedia, such as raw notes, PDFs, and images, into digestible visual presentations.

Previously, the service took an audio approach to helping users understand materials with Audio Overviews, a feature that gives users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared with NotebookLM, such as course readings or legal briefs.

With this new capability, NotebookLM is taking a more visual approach to helping users understand different topics and ideas.

Google says users can think of Video Overviews as a visual alternative to Audio Overviews. The feature creates new visuals while pulling in images, diagrams, quotes, and numbers from uploaded documents to explain the content. Google says the feature is good for explaining data, demonstrating processes, and making abstract concepts easier to understand.

Users can customize their Video Overviews, just like how they’re able to with Audio Overviews. They can specify topics to focus on, indicate their learning goals, describe the target audience, and more.

They can ask simple questions like, “I know nothing about this topic; help me understand the diagrams in the paper,” or specific ones like, “I’m already an expert on X and my team works on Y; focus on Z.”

Video Overviews are now rolling out to all users in English, with support for more languages coming soon, Google says.

Google also announced that it’s rolling out updates to NotebookLM’s Studio panel. Users can now create and store multiple studio outputs of the same type in a single notebook. Plus, users will now see four tiles at the top of the Studio panel for creating Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Mind Maps, and Reports with a single click.

In addition, users can now multitask within the Studio panel. For example, they can listen to an Audio Overview while simultaneously exploring a Mind Map or reviewing a Study Guide.