NotebookLM is now called Gemini Notebook
By Steven Van ·
The rename comes with folders on the way, plus existing notebooks and sources carrying over unchanged.
Google's beloved research companion has a new name: NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook. The team was explicit about what isn't changing, the same app you know and love isn't going anywhere, and neither is the mission of helping you learn faster. The name simply catches up with where the product sits in Google's AI portfolio.
From tiny experiment to ecosystem
The farewell note, signed, with a wink, by the Project Tailwind team, traces the arc. Three years ago it launched as a small experiment for learning from your own sources. Since then it added the features that made it a phenomenon: Audio Overviews that turn sources into podcast-style conversations, video overviews, and interactivity that moved it, in the team's words, from a passive workspace to a true research companion. And it stopped being a standalone destination: notebooks are already accessible in the Gemini app, with Google Search integration coming.
Why the rename makes sense
Once notebooks live inside Gemini surfaces, a separate brand mostly adds confusion, and "LM" dated the product to an era when shipping a language model was itself the story. Folding it under Gemini mirrors what Google has done across its AI lineup this year (Flow Music absorbed the MusicFX experiments the same way). The pattern to note: the experiments graduate, and the survivors get Gemini names. For users, the practical read is stability, this is a consolidation of a winner, not a sunset.
What's next
The team teased big things to come, and confirmed the most requested feature in NotebookLM history is finally on the way: folders. Combined with the Gemini app integration and the coming Search access, the notebook is positioned to become the default container for research at Google scale, sources in, grounded answers, audio, and video out.
Nothing to do, one thing to check
Existing notebooks, sources, and workflows carry over; you'll just see the new name. If you reference NotebookLM in your own content or courses, as many creator-educators do, this is your cue to update naming, and to keep an eye out for the folders launch.
Sources: Gemini Notebook on X, Google.