Summary

Notebooks in the Gemini app are personal knowledge bases that let you organize chats, files, and custom instructions for ongoing projects. Notebooks sync bi-directionally with NotebookLM so you can leverage features unique to each product (e.g., Video Overviews, Infographics) while keeping a single curated set of sources. Gemini uses your notebook sources alongside its tools and web search to produce context-aware responses.

Key Points

• Create a notebook from the Gemini app side panel and move relevant chats into it.
• Attach files (documents, PDFs) and set custom instructions so Gemini has project-specific context.
• Notebooks sync automatically with NotebookLM, enabling cross-app workflows (use NotebookLM for visual/video summaries, then return to Gemini for drafting and Q&A).
• Source coverage and features available depend on subscription tier; Google AI Ultra, Pro, and Plus subscribers on the web get access this week.
• Wider rollout planned to mobile, more countries in Europe, and free users in the coming weeks.
• Generative AI features are experimental; validate outputs before using for critical tasks.

Practical tips for engineers

• Start a notebook per project/subject to keep prompts, files, and conversation history cohesive.
• Add canonical project docs (specs, readmes, diagrams) and use custom instructions to bias responses to your team’s conventions.
• Use NotebookLM for visual summaries and Gemini for iterative drafting or code-related Q&A to exploit each tool’s strengths.