Google NotebookLM Gets a New Video Overviews Feature, Studio Panel Upgraded
Google NotebookLM is getting another artificial intelligence (AI) feature to help users better understand complex topics. On Tuesday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced the rollout of Video Overviews, a tool that can generate a visual narrative-focused overview from the sources. The new feature is aimed at complementing the existing Audio Overviews feature, in scenarios where the topic is so dense that breaking it down visually would help users more. Alongside, NotebookLM is also getting a redesigned Studio panel, which makes it easier for users to access different tools.
Google NotebookLM Can Now Generate Visual Slides
In a blog post, the tech giant detailed the new Video Overviews feature in NotebookLM. Part of the platform’s Studio outputs, the new overviews format comes with narrated slides. The feature was first announced at the Google I/O 2025, and it is finally making its way to users. Notably, the feature is available to all NotebookLM users, including those on the free tier.
Video Overviews in NotebookLM
Gadgets 360 staff members were able to test out the feature, and Video Overviews essentially creates multiple static visual slides, similar to a PowerPoint presentation, that use diagrams, emojis, text, graphs, and tables. The feature also uses key quotes from the sources, wherever necessary. The entire slideshow comes with an AI-generated narration that explains the topic. A female AI voice does the narration, and there is no option to change the voice.
In our experience, the tool worked as advertised; however, the overall narration appeared to be more generalised and missed a few key points from the sources. This nuance was better captured in Audio Overviews.
Google says Video Overviews will be helpful in explaining information-dense topics that include a lot of data, involve processes, and “making abstract concepts more tangible.” This format also allows users to specify topics to focus on, highlight the learning goals, and describe the target audience.
Apart from this, the company is also redesigning the Studio panel that houses Audio and Video Overviews, Mind Map and Reports. The company is now adding four large tiles on the right side of the interface for these features. Any content created using these tools will appear underneath in a list. Users can also multitask and see a Mind Map while listening to an Audio Overview.
Additionally, so far, users could only create a single output from each tool in a notebook. It is now being removed, and users can now create and store multiple studio outputs of the same type in a single notebook.
Source link