While the big launch of Gemini 3.0, Google’s most intelligent AI model, was certainly the highlight of last week, the company has also been hard at work improving one of its biggest hits: NotebookLM. In fact, this week might have been one of the busiest yet for new NotebookLM features. So, here’s a rundown of all the new NotebookLM features that rolled out over the past few days.

Slide Decks and Infographics come to NotebookLM

Simon Tokumin, the NotebookLM lead at Google Lab, recently started putting out release notes covering everything the team has pushed out each week via X (formerly Twitter). Today, he posted the newest set of release notes.

To start off strong, Google added two new outputs you can generate in the Studio panel: Infographics and Slide Decks. Both features are powered by Google's latest Nano Banana Pro model, which Google also launched last week. With Slide Decks, you can turn any source(s) you upload to your notebook into a full-fledged presentation.

Infographics, on the other hand, let you create visual summaries of the sources you upload. As with most NotebookLM features, you have plenty of control over the final Slide Decks and Infographics that are generated.

All you need to do is click the pencil icon on the relevant tile, and you'll see plenty of customization options, like choosing the orientation and level of detail of the Infographic, and the format and length of the Slide Deck. You can also add custom instructions to guide exactly how the content is generated.

More control with customizable Video Overviews

While we're talking about customization, another notable update NotebookLM got this week is the ability to customize Video Overviews. Before this, NotebookLM lets you manually select one of the following visual styles for your Video Overviews (or Auto-select): Classic, Whiteboard, Kawaii, Anime, Watercolor, Retro print, Heritage, and Paper-craft.

Now, you'll find a new Custom option where you can describe a visual style in your own words, and NotebookLM will generate a Video Overview that matches your description. This gives you far more creative control over how your notes are presented.

Thinking UX lets you watch NotebookLM’s thought process

Another exciting update is "Thinking UX," which essentially lets you see NotebookLM's thought process when answering your questions. Previously, you would only get the final answer. Now, you'll see in real time how NotebookLM arrives at the answer.

For instance, I asked NotebookLM a question based on my lecture slides, and here are the steps it went through before delivering the final response: analyzing my files, reading through pages and full chapters, checking sources, processing the material, and grounding the answer.

Longer custom personas and a new way to create notebooks quickly

You can now also create longer custom personas in NotebookLM. The custom personas feature essentially lets you shape NotebookLM's AI into exactly the assistant you need by describing how you'd like it to behave. Before, you were limited to just 500 characters for defining a persona's style, role, or goal. That limit has now gone up to 5,000, which means you can provide much more detailed instructions.

Finally, you’ll now also find a new + Create Notebook button when you’re inside any notebook. This is meant to make it easier to start a new one without having to jump back to the home screen, giving you a quicker workflow overall. So, this was quite the packed week for NotebookLM updates.